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The Welsh of Columbus, Ohio 



A Stndy ia 



Adaptation and Assimilation 




By 

Rev. Daniel Jenkins Williams, M. A,, B. D. 



/l\ 

''Y GwiR Yn Erbyn Y Byd" 
Welsh Motto 



Published by the Author 

OsHKOSH, Wisconsin 

1913 






Copyright 1913 

by 

Daniel Jenkins Williams 



^/V^ 



©CI.a:)5I»858 



Dedicated to the Sacred Memory of 
Hugh and Elias R. 



TO THE READER 

This monograph was begun by the author when he was 
pastor of the Welsh Presbyterian (Calvinistic Methodist) 
Church of Columbus, Ohio. The study was entered upon as 
an effort to ascertain the place and function of the Welsh 
church in the city of Columbus. After beginning the study 
the writer was called, in 1911, to the pastorate of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Oshkosh, Wisconsin; but the study 
has been pui'sued to its completion in the hope that the effort 
expended and the results obtained might be of some benefit to 
leaders in Welsh communities elsewhere. 

Some readers may be satisfied that the conditions revealed 
herein concerning this particular group of Welsh people have 
no parallel in any other community. That opinion must be 
true. An exact duplicate of this, or of any other group, can 
be found nowhere in the world. But like groups surrounded 
by similar conditions may be found. And the degree of 
assimilation in which the Welsh group of Columbus is found 
at present, all other Welsh communities in America have 
either passed through, or are in at present, or still must pass 
through in the future. To the last class mentioned, viz. those 
approaching the condition disclosed in this work, such a study 
as this should prove especially helpful. 

No one who reads these pages will be so alive to their 
limitations as the author, and he begs leniency on the part of 
his critics. Whatever be the natui-e of the comment, if the 
labor performed will encourage others to do their work in 
their communities the writer will feel amply repaid for his 
effort. 

The author Avishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to 
many friends for assistance given in making this study possi- 
ble; among them a few names may be mentioned, viz. Mr. 
L. D. Davies who made the canvass of the Welsh of Columbus, 
Ohio; Mr. Marvin Williams of Ripon College who made the 
drawings; also Professors J. B. Hagerty and F. A. Me- 
Kenzie of the Faculty of Sociology and Economics in the Ohio 
State University for many helpful suggestions. 

June 21, 1913. 



7b^ 



CONTENTS 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Bibliography 11-12 

Chapter I. 
The Cause of Welsh Emigration 

The Norman-English Conquest of Wales 13 

The Assimilation of Welsh and English Law 13 

Nonconformity in Wales 15 

Religious Awakening in the Eighteenth Century 15 

Result of the 18th Century Revival on the Social Life 

of Wales 16 

General Dissatisfaction Results in Emigration 16 

Traces of Early Welsh Migration 17 

The ' ' DyffrjTi Mawr ' ' Colony in Pennsylvania 18 

After the War of Independence Welsh Emigration Revived 18 

Chapter II. 
The Coming of the Welsh to Ohio 
(Immigration and Early Settlement) 

The Fii-st Welsh Arrivals 20 

The First Permanent Welsh Settlers 20 

The Paddy's Run Settlement 22 

The Welsh Hills Settlement 23 

The "Jackson and Gallia" Settlement 24 

The Gomer Settlement 26 

The Venedocia Settlement 27 

The Radnor Settlement 27 

Pioneer Life 28 

Early Homes 29 

The Family and the Home Training 30 

Sabbath Observance 30 

Religious Life 31 

Growth 34 

Decline 37 



8 CONTENTS 

Chapter III. 
The Welsh of Ohio in Columbus 

Page 

Location and Early History of Columbus 39 

Location Advantageous to the Welsh 41 

Periods of Welsh Migration 42 

The First Period 42 

Emigration to America Agitated in Wales 43 

Welsh of the First Period Skilled Laborers 48 

The Second Period 49 

The "Mill Men" Come 49 

Immigration from Local Settlements in Ohio 50 

The Third Period 52 

Organization and Change 55 

Community Spirit 58 

Literary and Social Functions 59 

The Eisteddfod 59 

Donations 60 

Amusements 60 

The Welsh Prominent in Columbus 60 

Conclusion 61 



Chapter IV. 
Welsh Population Statistics 

General Statement 63 

The Gathering of Data for the Present Work 64 

Limitations of the Work 66 

Classified Groups 67 

General Survey of the Welsh Population of Columbus. ... 68 

Distribution of the Welsh over the City 69 

Population by Age Classes 74 

Sex 75 

Foreign and Native Born 76 

Place of Birth 76 

Conclusion 80 



CONTENTS 9 

Chapter V. 
Welsh Social Statistics 

Page 

General Statement 81 

Marriage and Conjugal Relation 81 

Intermarriage 82 

Families, Dwellings and Resident Districts 89 

Occupation Groups and Business Relations 02 

Education 04 

Literary and Improvement Societies 04 

Morality and Temperance 06 

Politics 07 

Church Membership 07 

Conclusion 1^^^4 



Chapter VI. 

The Process of Change 
(The Vanishing Welsh) 

Welsh Conservatism Giving Way to a Broader Outlook ... 105 

Regard for Sunday and Holidays 107 

The Linguistic Question 108 

Characteristic Welsh Institutions Waning 116 

Revivals Among the Welsh 117 

The Problem of the Church 110 

The Church and Its Ministry 124 

Three Groups of Welsh Ministers Discussed 125 

The Welsh Church Approaching a Crisis 127 

The Welsh Church in Columbus Adapting Itself 132 

Intermarriage Affects Church Membership 133 

Concluding Remarks 1 34 



10 



CONTENTS 



Graphic Representations 

Figure 1. Showing the Sources of the Welsh in Colum- 
bus in 25 years 54 

Figure 2. Showing the relative number of foreign and 

native born Welsh 77 

Figure 3. Showing relative number of pure and mixed 

marriages 84 

Figure 4. Showing marriages according to grouping of 

foreign and native born 86 

Figure 5. Showing relative number of church members, 

attendants, and non-church-goei-s 102 

Figure 6. Showing relative number of Welsh speakers 

and non-Welsh-speakers 114 

Figure 7. Showing relative number of Welsh speakers 
according to classifications of native and 
foreign born 115 

Figure 8, i. Showing relative number of baptisms, and, 
ii, those admitted into church membership 

in a given period 131 

Map 

Outline Map of Columbus 72 

Appendix 

A. Table II. showing Total Number of IMembers Received 

into the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Columbus 
by Letters in 25 years. 

B. Table V. Age-groups According to Sex in the CalvinivStic 

Methodist Church and Society. 

C. Table VI. Statistics of Foreign and Native Born Welsh 

in Columbus. 

D. Tables VIII., IX. and X. on Marriage and Intermarriages 

and the Nationalities with whom the Welsh have 
Intermarried, 

E. Tables XIII., XIV. and XV. on Church Members, At- 

tendants, and Non-church-goers, Classified According 
to their Foreign and Native Born Groups. 

F. List of Welsh Periodicals Published in America. 

Error 144 



BIBLIOGEAPHY 11 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



"The Cradle of the Republic, Jamestown and the James 
River" by Lyon G. Tyler: First edition 1900; sec- 
ond edition 1906. Hermitage Press, Richmond, Va., 
publisher. 

"New England's Memorial" by Nathaniel Morton, 5th Edi- 
tion by John Davies. Crocker and Brewester, pub- 
lishers, Boston, 1826. 

"The Making of Pennsylvania" by Sidney George Fisher, 
1896. Lippincott, Philadelphia, publisher. 

"Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania" by 
Sherman Day, 1843 edition. 

"Historical Collections of Ohio," two Volumes by Henry 
Howe; C. J. Krehbiel & Co., publishers, Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

"Ohio Historical Society," — Articles by William Harvey 
Jones. 

"The History of Paddy's Run" by Rev. B. W. Chidlaw; pub- 
lished by Hamilton Telegraph Co., Hamilton, Ohio, 
1876. 

"The Story of My Life" by Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, D. D., 
Cleves, Ohio. 

"Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio 
from the Earliest Times Up to 1860" by L. D. 
Davies, Columbus, Ohio. 1910. 

"Statistics and Sociology" by Richmond Mayo-Smith, 1902; 
The MacMillian Co., publishers. 

"Y Cyfaill" — a Welsh monthly magazine of the Calvinistic 
Methodist denomination. Rev. Joseph Roberts, D. 
D., New York City, editor. 

"Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia" by Rev. William R. Evans, 
Gallia, O. J. T. Griffiths, Utiea, N. Y., publisher. 



12 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

"Y Dryeh" a Welsh weekly- paper for the Welsh in America 

owned and published by J. T. Griffiths, Utiea, N. Y. 
"The Cymry of 76" — an address delivered in 1855 before the 

Saint David 's Benevolent Society, New York City by 

Alexander Jones, M. D. 
"Cymry Al Phobl" 1894, printed by the editor of the Drych, 

Utica, N. Y. 
"Hanes Cymry America" 1872, by Rev. R. D. Thomas (lor- 

werth Cwynedd) published by T. J. Griffiths, Utica, 

N. Y. 
"Cofiant y Parch Robert Williams, Moriah, Ohio." published 

by T. J. Griffiths, Utica, N. Y., 1883. 
"Hanes Methodistiaeth Cymry," Rev. John Hughes; published 

by Hughes and Son, Wrexham, 1854. 
"The Cambrian" — a magazine for Welsh- Americans, publish- 
ed by T. J. Griffiths, Utica, N. Y. 
"Records of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, Columbus, O." 
The United States Census for 1910. 
"The AVelsh People" by John Rhys and David Brynmor — 

Jones, the MacMillian Co. 1900. 
"The Story of the Nations — Wales" by Owen M. Edwards, 

Putnam's Sons, 1902. 
" Di^vj'giadau Crefyddol Cymry," Parch Henry Hughes, 

published at Sywddfa'r Genedl, Casrnarfon. 
"Cofiant Y Tri Brawd," E. Pan Jones, Ph. D., H. Evans, 

Bala, publisher. 
"Welshmen as Civil, Political and Moral Factors in the 

Formation of the United States Republic," by Rev. 

W. R. Evans. 
"Adroddiad Pwryllgor Adeiladu Capel Newydd Salem, Vene- 

docia." 



CHAPTER I. 



THE CAUSE OF WELSH EMIGRATION 

Welsh emigration grew naturally out of conditions pre- 
vailing in Wales. The conditions resulted from a series of 
events running over several centuries which culminated in a 
break between the landlord and the tenant, between the own- 
ers of estates and the actual tillers of the land. 

In briefly tracing the steps which led ultimately to ex- 
treme dissatisfaction on the part of the Welsh with conditions 
in their native land we observe the following facts : 

The forming of modern estates in Wales was a gradual 
process and was due to the breaking down of the ancient 
Welsh feudal system consequent to the Norman or Norman- 
English Conquest. Wales is a land of castles, but her castles 
are not Welsh — they are Norman. They were erected by 
the conquerors of Wales. The result of this gradual conquest 
was the formation of modern estates in Wales. The free- 
holders, who possessed tracts of land so large that they ceased 
to be farmers in the ordinary sense and who lived mainly on 
the rents paid them by the tillers of the soil, gradually became 
a distinct class and the natural outgrowth was the develop- 
ment of an aristocratic group. 

The assimilation of Welsh and English law which was 
completed by the legislation of Henry VIII. tended to enlarge 
the powers of this aristocratic class very much, for, from that 
time, Welsh members were sent to Westminster regularly and 
this fact had an important bearing on the fortunes of the 
Welsh upper class. ^ From the very nature of the situation 
it was members of the landowning families that were sent to 
Parliament for many generations. The result of this was that 
the aristocracy of Wales joined in the general political life of 



1 See "The Story of the Nations — Wales" Ch. XX on the "Court of 
Wales." 



14 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

the whole kingdom, and it gave them a broader outlook on life 
and a keener sense of their own importance as well. They 
came into contact with people of their own class in England 
and this finally led to intermarriage between Welsh and 
English families. Their increasing association with the cor- 
responding class in England led also to a gradual assimilation 
in manners, speech, and general habits of life. 

The dissolution of the monasteries which took place prac- 
tically at the same time as the summoning of the Welsh mem- 
bers to Parliament had also an important effect on the en- 
larging of Welsh estates, or, better say, of the estates in Wales, 
for it gave an opportunity to members of the Norman-English 
baronial families as well as to the Welsh princely families to 
add new tracts to their estates. 

The rebellion of the 17th Century had a great effect in 
destroying the older Welsh estates and in forming new ones. 
By the time of James I., Wales as well as England was divided 
into estates similar in character to those of today. ^ 

The Norman-English Conquest of Wales stopped the 
progress of Wales in every way. Not only had the Welsh 
lost their land but the continual condition of warfare reduced 
the masses of the people to a barren condition intellectually. 
The real Welsh aristocracy of the pre-Conquest period, the 
people who nourished and fostered the early literature of 
Wales, disappeared or became assimilated into the English 
upper class. The Reformation created little or no excitement 
in Wales. It was practically unnoticed by the great masses 
of the Principality. This is significant, for a strong religious 
appeal would naturally arouse the highly imaginative and 
emotional Celt. "The Welsh," says Professor Rhys, "were 
plunged into a deep sleep from which the Civil Wars and the 
religious excitement of the 17th Century were able only very 
partially to arouse them." 

During the reign of Elizabeth a .statute was passed pro- 



1 See "The Welsh People" Oh. IX p. 295 sq. on "History of Land Tenure 
in Wales;" see also "The Story of the Nations — Wales" p. 339 sq. 



THE CAUSE OF WELSH EMIGRATION 15 

viding for the translation of the Bible into Welsh. This task 
was a service of inestimable value to religion in Wales. 

Nonconformity in Wales as to its origin is generally asso- 
ciated with William Worth and his colleagues who after being 
ejected from the church went around preaching as itinerant 
preachers throughout the country. i But so far as the or- 
ganized condition of the church was concerned it remained 
practically unchanged, with the possible exception of a few 
nonconformist organizations in South Wales, until the end of 
the 17th Century. 

Religiously rural Wales was a desolate wilderness at the 
beginning of the 18th Century. The majority of the clergy 
of the Established Church contented themselves with a per- 
functory discharge of their duties. Services were seldom 
held ; in some parishes only once or twice in a year, and in 
others no services in several years. The Church appointed 
to the Welsh bishoprics persons entirely ignorant of the Welsh 
language. Another evil was the "clerical absenteeism." 
Many of the clergy of Welsh parishes did not reside in their 
parishes.2 And still greater was the evil of the "system of 
pluralities" where men held several offices in the church and 
distributed many more among members of their families.^ 

The Religious Awakening, — With such conditions pre- 
vailing something must happen, and it did happen in Wales. 
The renaissance of Wales during the 18th Century came in 
the form of a religious revival which in its intensity and con- 
sequence was tremendous. The century from 1730 to 1830 
witnessed a complete transformation of the Welsh people. 
"In 1730," Professor Rhys tells us, "the Welsh speaking 
people were probably as a whole the least religious and most 
intellectually backward in England and Wales. By 1830 
they had become the most earnest and religious people in the 
whole kingdom." 



1 See "The Welsh People" p. 462. 

2 The Bishops of Llandafif were absentees from 1706 to 1820. See Welsh 
People p. 468. 

3 Bishop Luxmore and four of his relatives, (sons and nephews) held 
collectively not less than 16 offices which brought to them from church sources 
•bout 25,225£. For details see "The Welsh People" p. 468-469. 



16 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

This change was produced by the Calvinistic Methodist 
revival. In some respects this revival resembled the revival 
which took place in England under Whitfield and Wesley. 
It had its beginning within the pale of the Established 
Church. Griffith Jones of Llanddowror was its originator 
but he was soon eclipsed by Daniel Rowlands of Llangeitho 
and Howell Harries of Treveca. These two men in spite of 
bitterest persecution and most violent opposition aroused 
Wales from its lethargy by their powerful preaching. The 
result was that by the middle of the 18th Century large and 
energetic nonconformist organizations had been created in 
Wales. A great and efficient clergy had arisen and a con- 
structive work was being carried on.^ 

The influence of this revival upon the social and economic 
progress of Wales was significant. It was a religious move- 
ment to be sure, but it was more than that. It produced a 
change in the mental and moral qualities of the people. Thii 
result of this awakening expressed itself in many ways. It 
helped to preserve the Welsh language which was rapidly 
vanishing in the Conquest period. It stimulated Welsh 
literature and it raised a force of Welsh writers and pulpi^j 
orators of mighty power. It stimulated a demand for edu- 
cation, and it created a general dissatisfaction with the social 
and economic regime then existing. 

With the awakening from the apathy produced by cen- 
turies of conquest, internal wars, and lordship domination, 
there arose in the bosom of Wales the old time desire for 
liberty and independence. This cherished hope had been 
blighted for centuries, but the love of freedom which was 
dormant in the heart of the nation was rekindled and now 
asserted itself once more. 

We have this condition existing in Wales during the 18th 
and 19th Centuries, the period of great emigration: The 
inhabitants were divided into two classes very unequal in 
number and intelligence, viz. (i) The landowning class 



1 See "The Welsh People" p. 453 Ch. X on the Religious Movement in 
Wales. See also "The Story of the Nations — Wales" p. 386 sq. 



THE CAUSE OF WELSH EMIGRATION 17 

which was aristocratic in type, living in the towns, speaking 
for the most part the English language, and who were in 
direct touch with the same class in England, (ii) The ac- 
tual cultivators of the soil, speaking the Welsh language, liv- 
ing in the rural parts, and entertaining views of life and 
clinging to traditions belonging to an early stage of civiliza- 
tion. The landowners were English churchmen while their 
tenants were nonconformists, and the former had but little 
regard for the welfare of the later. 

The foregoing may suffice as a rough outline of general 
conditions which may well account for Welsh migration to 
America when once the attention of the downtrodden people 
was called to the advantages on the American Continent. To 
know of a land where he might actually become possessor of 
a plot of ground and where he could worship according to the 
dictates of his ovm conscience appealed to the Welshman very 
strongly; and hither they came in large numbers. 

There were Welsh in the Colonies which landed at James- 
town^ and Plymouth Rock,^ and many refugees fled to New 
England in the succeeding decades. Welsh place names in 
New England such as the towns of Bangor, Milford and Mon- 
mouth in Maine, Milford in Massachusetts, and Conway in 
New Hampshire, indicate that there were Welsh settlers in 
the various Colonies.^ 

The first Welsh colony of any considerable size and im- 
portance was that which came to America under William Penn 
in 1682. With the coming of Penn the Welsh entered Penn- 
sylvania in very large numbers. Fisher in his "Making of 
Pennsylvania" informs as that "For the first fifteen or 
twenty years after the founding of Pennsylvania in 1682 the 
Welsh were the most numerous class of immigrants, and they 
have left many traces of themselves for many miles around 
Philadelphia in the names of places." 

i See "The Cradle of the Republic, James Town and the James River" 
p. 100 sq. where 20 or more Welsh names are given among those who landed 
at Jamestown in 1607. 

2 See "New England's Memorial" p. 38 sq. where at least five names 
which are Welsh are mentioned among the men who signed the first political 
document at Cape Cod. 

3 "Cymry A' i Phobl" p. 41 sq. 



18 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

The Welsh settled in "Y Dyffryn Mawr"— The Great 
Valley — near Philadelphia. They had negotiated with Penn 
for this tract, which consisted of 40,000 acres of land, before 
they left Wales. The Welsh of the Dyffrn Mawr colony were 
(Quakers, and for the first eight or nine years they undertook 
to rule their colony in their own Avay, having none of the 
usual county or township officers, their Quaker-meetings exer- 
cising the civil authority.^ That which determined emigra- 
tion on the part of the Welsh who came to the Dyffrn Mawr 
was twofold in nature, (i) the tyranny of the nobles in Wales 
and, (ii) the persecution of the Quakers in the 17th Century. 
When the way was opened the Welsh immediately followed 
Penn to his Province in Pennsylvania. The venture of the 
first Welshmen who came to Pennsylvania was attended with 
great success and that stimulated others of their countrymen 
to follow them to America. 

For a hundred years after the founding of this colony in 
the Dyffryn Mawr the Welsh continued to migrate and to 
settle in the different New England Colonies. The part which 
the Welsh took in the struggle for American Independence 
shows a general prevalence of Welsh in the Colonies. Among 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence there were 
Welshmen from several different Colonies. Among the gen- 
erals of the Revolutionary War there were fourteen men of 
Welsh blood, as were also many of the Colonels, Captains, 
Lieutenants, Naval Officers and Chaplains, to say nothing 
of the hundreds who filled the ranks.^ 

After the War for Independence Welsh migration revived 
with vigor. The record of Welshmen in the fight for inde- 
pendence aroused the pride and the love of liberty which the 
Welsh so much cherished, and thousands came to believe that 
their high aspirations could be realized only in America. The 
Press was also busy with articles Avhich stimulated and nour- 
ished dissatisfaction with conditions in Wales, and was at the 



1 See "The Making of Pennsylvania" p. 202 sq. See also "Historical 
Collections of the State of Pennsylvania' ' Chapters on Delaware, Cambria, 
Chester and Montgomery Counties. 

2 See "The Cymry of '76"; see also "Welshmen as Civil, Political and 
Moral Factors in the" Formation and Development of the United States Republic." 



THE CAUSE OF WELSH EMIGEATION 19 

same time publishing glowing advertisements of favorable 
conditions in the United States.^ 

The religious independent spirit was also growing. 
Shortly after 1730 Daniel Rowlands of Llangeitho and Howell 
Harris of Treveca stirred all Wales with their dissenting 
movement, and this turned the faces of thousands of Welsh- 
men toward America with a view to enjoying religious liberty. 

It is our purpose in the chapters which follow to study 
some of the Welsh who migrated to Ohio toward the close of 
the 18th Century and during the early decades of the 19th 
Century, and to follow their fortunes to the point where they 
are being assimilated into the great American people. 



1 Rev. Richard Price wrote a pamphlet on ' 'Observations on Civil Liberty 
and the Justice and the Policy of the War with America" in 1776. 60,000 
copies of this work was sold in a few months. This pamphlet aroused great 
interest on both sides of the Atlantic. So greatly was it admired in the United 
States that the American Congress in 1778, through Franklin, communicated to 
him their desire to consider him a fellow citizen, and asked his assistance in 
regulating their finances. In 1783, the same time as Washington, Mr. Price 
received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Yale University. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 

(Migration and Early Settlement) 
The first Welshman to enter the territory now known as 
the State of Ohio was the Rev. David Jones who labored as a 
missionary among the Shawnee and Delaware Indians in 1772 
and 1773. The second Welshman known to have traversed 
Ohio ground was General Anthony Wayne. General Wayne, 
with his army, came to Ohio in 1793 being commissioned by 
the government "to make an end of Indian troubles on the 
frontier. ' ' ^ 

The first permanent Welsh settlers^ in Ohio were Ezekiel 
Hughes and Edward Bebb who came from Llanbrynmair, 
Montgomeryshire, North Wales. These two men were re- 
sponsible for the first definite step westward on the part of 
Welsh emigrants. Hughes and Bebb were instrumental in 
persuading a company of fifty Welsh people in their neighbor- 
hood in Llanbrynmair to emigrate to America. This com- 
pany walked from Llanbrynmair to Bristol, England, where, 
on August 11th, 1795, they embarked on the ship Maria and 
sailed for America. After a perilous voyage of fourteen 
weeks they entered Delaware Bay and in a few days there- 
after reached the port of Philadelphia. These emigrants be- 
came the pioneer settlers of Ebensgburg, Cambria County, 
Pennsylvania, of Paddy's Run, Butler County, Ohio, and of 
the Welsh Hills in Licking County, Ohio. 

In the autumn of 1796 twelve families settled in Ebens- 
burg^ including those of Theopholis Reese, Thomas Phillips, 
and James Nicholas. In the following Spring and Summer 
eleven other families came to the settlement. They named 



1 See "The Cambrian for Nov. 3, 1881; also "The Cymry of '76" 

2 See "The History of the Welsh Settlement of Paddy's Run"; also 
"Hanes Cymry America" p. 113 sq. 

3 See "Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania," chapter on "Cam- 
bria County." 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 21 

the township Cambria, and later the County was given the 
same name.^ The Welsh of this colony are characterized as 
"a people remarkable for thrift, sobriety, and industry." 

Hughes and Bebb did not join the other members of their 
company who settled in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, but after 
remaining with friends in the Dyffryn Mawr, (Great Valley), 
near Philadelphia for several months, they started in April 
1796 for the then far West. They walked over the mountains 
to Red Stone, Old Fort, (now Brownsville) Pa. where they 
secured a flat-boat and floated down the Ohio River to Fort 
Washington, or Cincinnati. 

After reaching Cincinnati they spent three weeks "in 
traversing the five lower ranges" but in their search they 
found only one tract of land w^hich they considered good for 
that part of the country. They described the land as being 
well watered and convenient being only half a mile from the 
road going from Cincinnati to Hamilton. They purchased 
100 acres of land in section 34, Colerian Township, cleared a 
part of it for cultivation, and built a cabin on it. Their pur- 
pose was to remain there and to experiment with the land in 
that region until the land beyond the Great i\Iiami was sur- 
veyed by the government and placed on the market, believing 
that the soil on the east side of the Great Miami River was 
similar to that on the west side. 

They remained on their farm east of the Great Miami 
from 1796 until 1801 w^hen the government surveyed the land 
on the west side of the river and placed it on the market. 
The two men made frequent excursions into the regions be- 
yond the I\Iiami and made careful examination of the soil and 
of conditions in general. ''The land to be sold on the other 
side of the Miami," writes Hughes, "is rich as any in Ken- 
tucky, much better watered, and the title indisputable." 

Ezekiel Hughes was the first to purchase land in this newly 
opened territory. He bought sections 15 and 16 in White- 
water To^vnship, Hamilton County, paying $2.05 per acre. 

1 The Welsh of Cambria County first settled at Beulah, about two miles 
from Ebensburg but when Ebensburg was made the county seat of Cambria 
County, tiie Welsh gradually moved toward Ebensburg. 



22 THE WEI^H OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

This tract lies between the Miami and Whitewater rivers, 
just where the Whitewater empties into the Miami. At the 
same time Edward Bebb purchased half a section on the Dry- 
Fork of Whitewater in what is now Morgan Township, Butler 
County, which was the first land bought in Butler County. 
Two other men, Morgan and William Gwilym, from Cavena- 
man, South Wales, joined Hughes and Bebb on the east side 
of the Great Miami in 1798, and "squatted" on Blue Rock 
Creek. In 1802 William Gwilym followed his friends to 
Paddy's Run and began to clear the forest. Morgan Gwilym 
returned to Red Stone where he had previously worked, stayed 
there a while and then invested his earnings in a two-horse 
wagon and some iron castings and returned to Paddy's Run. 
Edward Bebb. after buying his land, started for Wales 
seeking the sweetheart of his former days with the intention 
of bringing her to the cabin in the woods. He walked all the 
distance from Paddy's Run to Ebensburg intending to stay 
there a short time on his return trip to Wales. While at 
Ebensburg, much to his surprise, he met the lady for whom 
he was making the trip. Her maiden name was Margret 
Roberts. But when Bebb met her in Ebensburg her name 
was Mrs. Margret Owens. After Bebb left Wales for Ameri- 
ca Miss Roberts married a man by the name of Owens. To 
Mr. and Mrs. Owens one child was born. The family left 
Wales for America but on the voyage Owens and the child 
died and were buried at sea, and Mrs. Owens was left to make 
her way in the new country alone. After landing in New 
York she determined to go to Ebensburg where she had rela- 
tives who had left Llanbrynmair in the ship Maria in 1795, 
It was at the home of one of the friends that Edward Bebb 
found her on his arrival at Ebensburg. Bebb remained there 
a few weeks, then returned to his home, on the Dry Fork, 
accompanied by his bride. There in their cabin on December 
8th. 1802 was born William Bebb, the first white child born 
in Butler County, who later became the 17th Governor of 
Ohio, and the first native born Governor of the Buckeye State.^ 



1 See "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I. p. 349. 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 23 

Ezekiel Hughes returned to Wales in 1803 and married a 
Miss Margret Bebb.^ The two returned to their home in 
Hamilton County in 1804. These trips on the part of Bebb 
and Hughes, together with correspondence and glaring ad- 
vertisement, created a great interest on the part of the Welsh 
of Llanbrynmair and presently a large number of Welsh im- 
migrants poured into Paddy's Run. From 1803 to 1820 there 
was a constant stream of Welsh people coming into the com- 
munity and a Welsh colony w-as the result. 

Just as Hughes and Bebb were pioneers in Paddy's Run 
so is Paddy's Run pioneer and parent of Welsh settlements 
in Ohio.2 Out of Paddy's Run grew, either directly or indi- 
rectly, four important Welsh settlements in the State, viz. : 
the Welsh Hills colony in Licking County, settled in 1801 ; 
the Jackson and Gallia settlements in Jackson and Gallia 
Counties, settled in 1818; the Gomer settlement established in 
Gomer, Allen County, in 1833 ; and the Venedocia settlement 
in Vanwert County established in 1848. 

The Welsh Hills Settlement 

Theopholis Rees and Thomas Phillips were members of the 
colony which first settled in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, 
in 1796. The influence of Hughes and Bebb may be seen in 
the desire of their friends to venture farther west. 

In 1801 Theopholis Rees began to investigate the ad- 
vantages of the country beyond the Ohio River.^ In August 



1 Margret Bebb, so far as we have been able to ascertain, was not a 
relative of the other Bebbs mentioned in this chapter. 

2 Paddy's Run sounds incongruous as the name of a Welsh community. 
There is a story handed down by tradition that in the first surveying party 
which came to this region there was an Irishman, and that the Irishman was 
drowned in this creek. From that time to the present day the creek has been 
known as Paddy's Run; and the community takes its name from the creek 
which runs through the valley. At one time during the '80s an effort was 
made to change the name from Paddy's Run to Glendower (Welsh, Glyndwr). 
The change was actually and officially made by the government, but so great 
was the opposition to it that the name was soon changed back to Paddy's Run. 
The station is now called Shandon but the community is known as Paddy's Run. 

3 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, article by Wm. Harvey Jones, 
p. 344 sq. Mr. Jones in this article states that Rees came to America with 
Thomas Phillips and others landing in New York May 14, 1795. Chidlaw 
definitely states that Rees was in the company of fifty who came with Hughes 
and Bebb and landed in Philadelphia in the Spring of 1795. Jones has made 
a careful study of Welsh Settlements in Ohio in recent years. Chidlaw, on the 
other hand, was the son-in-law of Ezekiel Hughes and wrote 20 years before 
Jones. Chidlaw quotes from the Diary of Ezekiel Hughes in his article (see 
The Cambrian for May, 1888). Whether Rees was in this particular company 
which Hughes and Bebb brought with them or not we do not know, but that 
the large majority of the Ebensburg colony were from the colony that Hughes 
and Bebb brought over is certain. So the influence of these men' in their west- 
ward venture was felt in the Ebensburg colony, and the most venturesome of 
them were, by the success of their friends in Paddy's Run. inspired to seek 
like opportunities beyond the Ohio. 



24 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

1801 he sent his son, John Rees, and Simon Jones to explore 
a tract of land in Granville Township, Licking County, which 
has since received the name of Welsh Hills Settlement. When 
these men returned to Ebensburg and reported favorably on 
the land in Licking County, Theopholis Rees and Thomas 
Phillips purchased nearly 2,000 acres of land in the northwest 
corner of Granville Township. The tract was divided, Rees 
taking the south half or a little more, and Phillips the re- 
mainder. Others bought smaller farms about the same time. 
A year after the purchase was made Rees and his family, his 
two sons-in-law and their families, left Ebensburg for their 
new home in the Welsh Hills. Thomas Phillips did not come 
to his tract in the Welsh Hills until 1806. From 1806 on, the 
colony grew rapidly for many years. 

"JACKSON AND GALLIA" 

Paddy's Run is indirectly responsible for the Welsh set- 
tlement of Jackson and Gallia Counties in Southern Ohio. 
In the Spring of 1818 six families from Kilkenin, Cardigan- 
shire, South Wales, emigrated for America. Their destina- 
tion was Paddy's Run, Butler County, Ohio. Friends of these 
people had left Kilkenin before and had settled in Paddy's 
Run. These six families arrived at Baltimore, and there 
hired wagons to carry them and their baggage to Pittsburg, 
where they purchased a flat-boat to float down the Ohio River 
as far as Cincinnati in the hope of reaching Paddy's Run 
shortly after. Floating down the Ohio they arrived in a few 
days at a small village, and, being short of provisions, paddled 
to shore and a delegation was sent to the town to secure food. 
On entering the village they discovered that the inhabitants 
were French — the village was Gallipolis. 

The delegation was kindly received by the French inhabit- 
ants who urged them to remain for the night. The committee 
returned to the boat and reported what they had seen and 
heard, with the result that the entire party disembarked and 
spent the night in Gallipolis. The French improved their 
time and opportunity and did all in their power to persuade 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 25 

the Welsh to remain in Gallia County giving it as their 
opinion that Gallia County was as good a country as could be 
found anj^where. 

During the night a violent storm arose. A heavy rain 
fell and a fierce gale was blowing. When the Welsh went to 
the river bank the next morning their boat was no where to 
be found. Two theories are advanced as to the disappearance 
of the boat. One is that during the storm of that night the 
boat became unfastened from the shore and drifted down the 
river. The other is that some resident of the village imbued 
more or less with the modern idea of booming his town cast 
the boat adrift in the hope of compelling the Welsh immi- 
grants to increase the population of Gallipolis. The boat was 
found and brought back to the village after several days 
search, but by this time the women of the company rebelled 
against going any farther.^ They declared that they had 
sufficiently risked their lives already and positively declined 
to commit themselves to the mercy of the treacherous Ohio 
any more in a flat-boat. 

The rebellion of the women together with the kind hospi- 
tality of the French inhabitants of Gallipolis prevailed. The 
Welsh settlement of Jackson and Gallia owes its existence to 
this incident which occurred to this company of immigrants 
who left Kilkenin in Cardiganshire, South Wales, with the 
avowed intention of going to Paddy's Run in Butler County, 
which is only a short distance farther down the river. 

These six families had little or no means when they arrived 
in Gallipolis and their first task was to find employment. At 
that time the State was opening a highway from Gallipolis to 
Jackson. On this road the men found work. They pushed 
their way north and west some eighteen or tw^enty miles from 
Gallipolis and came into the vicinity of what is now known as 
Centerville in Gallia County. They followed Sims Creek 
where there were a few acres of good bottom land. 

These pioneers experienced untold hardships and suffered 

1 See "The Cambrian" for June 1883, p. 120; also the "Cambrian" for 
Nov. 1888, p. 322 and "Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia," p. 10 sq. 



26 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

great privations. No glowing reports were sent to the old 
home in Wales from this settlement for many years, and it 
was not until eleven years later that another Welshman came 
from Cardiganshire into Jackson and Gallia Counties. 

In 1829 David Thomas came from Cardiganshire to visit 
his old time neighbors and friends, and in 1831 the Rev. Ed- 
ward Jones from the same place came to the settlement. 
While there Jones preached to the pioneers in their native 
tongue. This was the first Welsh preaching they had heard 
since leaving Wales. Jones stayed but a short time, then re- 
turned to Cardiganshire where he wrote and published a 
pamphlet in which he described the land of Jackson and Gallia 
Counties, and told of its resources, urging that this section 
of Ohio Avas the very place to which the Welsh should 
emigrate.! As a result of the publication of this pamphlet 
the Welsh from Cardiganshire literally poured into the Jack- 
son and Gallia settlement for many years. The settlement is 
frequently called "The Cardiganshire of America." Immi- 
gration began with vigor in 1834 and continued increasingly 
for twenty or twenty-five years. 

THE GOMER SETTLEMENT IN ALLEN COUNTY 
While the Welsh from Cardiganshire were flocking into 
Jackson and Gallia Counties, the Welsh from Montgomeryshire 
were entering Allen County. In 1833 three men, James 
Nicholas, Esq., David Roberts, and Thomas Watkins, with 
their respective families drove in wagons from Paddy's Run 
through the dense forest to what is now known as Gomer in 
Allen County. 2 The Welsh of Paddy's Run were almost all 
from Montgomeryshire, as we have already observed. Now 
we find favorable reports going from Gomer to Llanbrynmair, 
Montgomeryshire and some of the pioneer settlers of Gomer 
soon paid visits to the old home in Wales with the result that 
a large immigration into Gomer from Llanbrynmair was soon 
realized. 



1 See "The Cambrian" for Nov. 1883, p. 286 sq. ; also "The Cambrian" 
for Sept. 1907, p. 295; and "Sefydliadau Jackson a Gallia," p. 13. 

2 See "The Cambrian" for Oct. 1908, p. 439; also "Hanes Cymry Amer- 
ica," p. 120. 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 27 

THE VENEDOCIA SETTLEMENT IN VANWERT 
COUNTY 

For the Venedocia Welsh Settlement Paddy's Run is also 
responsible. Governor William Bebb purchased two or three 
sections of land in what is now Venedocia, Vanwert County. 
Through the influence of Governor Bebb his cousin, also Wil- 
liam Bebb by name, came to America from Llanbr>Timair. 
He lived at a place called Rhiwgriafol, and was known as 
"Bebb Rhiwgriafol. " 

The Bebbs in Wales were prominent Calvinistic Metho- 
dists,! and William Bebb "Rhiwgriafol" promised his friends 
and relatives before leaving home that he would, on arriving 
in America, establish a Welsh colony the religious complexion 
of which would be Calvinistic Methodist. With this promise 
he left Wales for Paddy's Run in 1846 or 1847. 

In April 1848 three men. William Bebb "Rhiwgriafol", 
Thomas Morris, and Richard Jarvis accompanied by their re- 
spective families, left Paddy 's Run for Vanwert County. This 
was the beginning of the present large and prosperous com- 
nuinity of Welsh people in Venedocia.^ 
THE RADNOR SETTLEMENT IN DELAWARE COUNTY 

There is one more settlement which must be considered 
here because of its evident bearing on the early Welsh popu- 
lation of Columbus, Ohio, although it bears no relation, so far 
as we can learn, to the pioneer settlement of Paddy's Run. 
It is the Welsh settlement of Radnor in Delaware County. 
This settlement is in the towTiship of Radnor near the north- 
west corner of the county, about six miles north of the city of 
Delaware. A young man by the name of David Pugh from 
Radnorshire, South Wales, was the first to purchase land here, 
buying land warrants for 4,000 acres from Samuel Jones of 
Philadelphia.^ 

Pugh^ landed in Baltimore in 1801 and rode on horse-back 

1 See "Methodistiaeth Cymru" Vol. II., p. 246. 

2 See "Hanes Cymry America," p. 122; also "Adroddiad Pwyllgor 
Adeiladu Capel Newydd Salem Venedocia." 

3 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, p. 345. 

4 David Pugh is the ancestor of the large and influential Pugh family of 
Columbus, Ohio. 



28 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

all the way from Philadelphia to Radnor to see his purchase. 
He then returned to Philadelphia and arranged with a Welsh- 
man by the name of Henry Perry from Anglesea, North 
Wales, to make a settlement upon the tract. 

In the Autumn of 1803 Perry and his two sons, aged 13 
and 15, erected a cabin on the land and lived in it that winter. 
In the Spring of 1804 Perry left his boys on the place to da 
for themselves while he returned to Baltimore for his wife 
and other children. In 1804 Pugh returned to his tract and 
divided it into lots of 100 acres each, and sold the farms to 
other settlers who came there. Many Welsh people came to 
Radnor from 1804 to 1807 and after that time the settlement 
enjoyed a prosperous growth for at least twenty years. 

PIONEER LIFE 

Many aspects of life were common to all these pioneer 
Welsh communities. The region into which they came was 
an unbroken forest, covered with a variety of timber and a 
thick growth of underbrush. The water supply was plentiful 
and the forest gave abundance of fruit and nuts of many 
varieties. The woods abounded \dth game and the streams 
teemed with fish. Nature provided well for the early comers. 

The first task of the pioneer after securing his land was ta 
select a suitable place for the location of his cabin. The first 
Welsh settlers sought the hills. The regions into which they 
came in Butler, Licking, and Jackson and Gallia Counties 
were hilly, as w^ere the homes of former Welsh settlers in 
Cambria County and the Great Valley region in Pennsylvania. 
Two reasons may be assigned for their selecting the hills for 
a home. First, the land from which these pioneer Welshmen 
came was mountainous. It was natural that they should chose 
a place similar in its general appearance to their homeland. 
A second reason for their seeking the hills was that the hill- 
tops were healthier. The valleys and bottom lands while 
possessing better soil, were at the same time swampy, the 
streams were sluggish and the water stagnant; whereas the 
hillsides were dry and from their slopes welled up pure and 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 29 

refreshing springs of water which ran in streams into the 
valleys below. 

The first cabins were generally erected near a spring on 
the hillside. Before the early settlers of Jackson and Gallia 
Counties decided to make that region their final abode they 
commissioned one of their number to investigate the condi- 
tions of the soil and climate in the Radnor settlement in Dela- 
ware County. The man returned with the verdict that the 
region about Radnor was low and swampy and suggestive of 
malaria. The Radnor colony, therefore, is the one exception 
of the early pioneer Welsh of Ohio which settled in a region 
not hilly, for the land in the vicinity of Radnor, while it is 
not entirely flat, is only slightly rolling. 

After living for a generation in the liill-country the Welsh 
began to move out of the hills into more level regions, and to 
make settlements there. Thus we found some of the early 
settlers of Paddy's Run in 1833 migrating to Gomer and start- 
ing a new settlement there ; others from the same place went 
to Venedocia in Vanwert County in 1848 to establish a new 
settlement in that place. And later, during the '60s we find 
the second generation leaving the hills of the Jackson and 
Gallia settlement and joining their countrymen in Vanwert 
County, while scores of others left for the prairies in Western 
States. 1 

The cabins of these early Welsh pioneers were built of 
logs with puncheon floors and greased paper windows. The 
doors were of clapboards fastened with wooden hinges. The 
logs of the house were chinked with mud of clay, as were also 
the chimneys. Their houses were scantily furnished with 
home made furniture, and their out-of-door buildings corres- 
ponded with their dwellings in point of architecture and fur- 
nishing in general. 

These Welsh pioneers possessed qualities of great endur- 
ance and their prominent characteristics were industry, fru- 
gality, deep religious convictions, and a kind and helpful 



1 See "The Cambrian" for March 1885, p. 73; also "Hanes Cymry 
America" Part II., p. 47. 



30 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

neighborly spirit. Their co-operation in economic activity 
showed this. They had their cabin "raisings," their "roll- 
ings," "ehoppings," and "huskings" in common, and 
"butchering day" was a great event. The women also had 
knitting parties and quilting bees. When new comers entered 
the settlement they were received with great kindness and the 
spirit of hospitality was very marked at such a time. Neigh- 
bors entertained new arrivals and helped them clear a piece 
of ground and to raise a cabin and did all in their power to 
make things home-like and comfortable for them. 

The Family and the Home Training. — This was a period 
of large families in the Welsh settlements, the families ranged 
anywhere from six, eight to ten children in the home, and 
sometimes twelve. The home influence and training were 
puritanic. On the puncheon floors of the cabins the entire 
family knelt every morning and every evening about the 
family altar. These early families knew but one language 
and one Book. They all spoke Welsh and they read and 
studied the Welsh Bible. If a family chanced to have some 
book aside from the Bible it was a biblical commentary, or 
perhaps a biography of some famous Welsh preacher. Papers 
and periodicals were scarcely known to them for a long time, 
except some few sent from Wales and these generally were of 
a religious character. 

With the literature at their disposal the parents in these 
humble homes were diligent in instructing their children; 
evenings were spent in teaching them to read the Welsh Bible 
and to commit verses of Scripture to memory. The younger 
children learned verses, while the older children committed 
chapters of the Gospels and Psalms to memory. 

Sabbath Observance. — The Sabbath was very strictly ob- 
served in the home. All shoes had to be shined on Saturday 
night for Sunday. Wood and water enough to last over Sun- 
day had to be brought to the house on Saturday evening. If 
a child laughed heartily on Sunday he was censured for it, 
the idea being that such laughter could only issue from a 
spirit of levity which was regarded unworthy of the day. 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 31 

For any member of the family to remain home from church 
on Sunday, except for illness, was out of the question. A 
child was censured for picking a berry from a bush on his way 
from Sunday School. To sing any song other than church 
hymns was not allowed, and to whistle even a hymn tune was 
forbidden as one of the unnecessary things on Sunday. To 
go for a walk on Sunday was to idle the time away and to go 
for a ride would be definitely to break the Sabbath. 

The diligence with which these parents guided their child- 
ren and gave them instruction with the meagre means at their 
disposal is certainly praiseworthy, and their reward may be 
seen in the worthy type of manhood and womanhood which 
the early settlements have produced. 

RELIGIOUS LIFE 

The Church Organization.— The control of the church in a 
typical Welsh community is remarkable. The church occu- 
pied a large and controlling place in each of these early Welsh 
settlements. But the power of the church organization is 
more marked in the Jackson and Gallia settlement than in any 
other. This may be accounted for in several ways. First of 
all, it was by far the largest of the early settlements, thus 
affording opportunities for developing a community life of 
their own choice without compromises with other people about 
them. In the next place they were all from the same part of 
Wales; they were, so to speak, one large family. They were 
very clannish and desired to have nothing to do with their 
neighbors of other nationalities. They spoke the Welsh lan- 
guage and were determined to maintain it. Their prevailing 
religious persuasion was Calvanistic Methodist and this de- 
nomination lends itself readily to a rigid form of government. 

The first pastor to the Jackson and Gallia settlement was 
the Rev. Robert Williams. Williams was a man of austere 
character and of domineering disposition. He was a powerful 
preacher, a great organizer, and an untiring worker. He was 
an absolute ruler and possessed but little of the democratic 
spirit. Apart from Robert Williams the history of the Jack- 



32 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

son and Gallia settlement cannot be related. He was its con- 
trolling figure in every religious undertaking. Under his 
leadership the religious organization of the settlement was 
developed and carried on for forty years, and the highly or- 
ganized condition of the settlement in a religious way was 
very largely due to his efforts. ^ 

The social life of the early Welshman centered about the 
church. To give the history of the church and its allied in- 
stitutions is to explain in large part the social control of a 
Welsh community. 

An idea of the strength of the church in this representative 
Welsh community may be gained from a brief resume of the 
institutions of the church as they grew in the settlement. 
The Sunday School, (Yr Ysgol Sul),— Sunday School is a 
great institution with the Welsh. The text-book in the Welsh 
Sunday School is the Bible. Quarterlies and lesson leaves 
are not used. All the people of the Jackson and Gallia com- 
munity attended Sunday School, both young and old; men 
and women as well as children. The preparation of the Sun- 
day School lesson was the task for the week at home. And 
the Sunday School program was such as to encourage and 
stimulate home study. 

The Sunday School Meeting, (Cyfarfod Ysgolion). This 
was held on week-days. It was held in turn at every church 
in the circuit. Representatives from each church attended 
the Sunday School Meeting, and reports from every school in 
the circuit were read there, giving record of attendance and 
work done. Papers were read by delegates on subjects per- 
taining to Sunday School work and Bible study. This stimu- 
lated active work in the home schools and they in turn en- 
couraged diligence in home instruction and study. 

Annual Sunday School Association Meeting, (Cyfarfod 
Ysgolion Blynyddol). This annual meeting corresponded to 
what is now generally known as Sunday School Institute. It 
was always held in September. Here all the schools of the 



1 See "Hanes Cymry America," p. 143; also "Sefydliadau Jackson 
Gallia," p. 100; and "Cofiant Y Parch Robert Williams, Moriah, Ohio." 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 33 

settlement gathered once a year. To the Sunday School bi- 
monthly meeting, mentioned above, delegates were sent from 
various schools, but to the Annual Association Meeting the 
whole community turned out bringing their picnic lunches 
with them and staying for the day, and an elaborate program 
was prepared for the occasion. 

The Bible Society Auxiliary, — (Y Gymdeithas Feiblau). 
This society was organized in the settlement in 1845. The 
society held two meetings annually, in convenient centers ; 
one at Oak Hill and the other at Centerville. At these meet- 
ings reports of the Bible Society were read, and essays and 
addresses were delivered on important topics pertaining to the 
work of the Bible Society. 

A Class in Theology, (Yr Ysgol Duwinyddol). There was 
for many years a large class in Oak Hill known as Yr Ysgol 
Duwinyddol, or School of Theology. It consisted of a leader 
who was a local minister, and any other persons of serious 
purpose who desired to attend. The enrollment in this school 
averaged from 30 to 40 persons. They met once every week. 

The Presbytery Meeting, (Cyfarfod Dosparth). Presby- 
tery met quarterly and it lasted two days, beginning Tuesday 
evening and lasting until Thursday afternoon. One morning 
session was devoted to business and the rest of the time to 
listening to sermons by the ministers, two men preaching at 
each session. 

The Synodical Meeting, (Y Gymanfa). The Welsh Synod 
of Ohio meets twice in the year, and once in every two years 
the Synod comes to the settlement. The Gymanfa used to be 
held at Moriah, the mother church, in former years, but in 
later years it has been held at Oak Hill, this place being more 
central. The Gymanfa was held in the week time, the public 
sessions were conducted in a grove near the church. Any- 
where from 3,000 to 4,000 people attended this great meeting 
of the church. The following is the program of the Gymanfa: 
Tuesday at 10:00 a. m. the Gymanfa convenes. This is its 
first business session, and at 2:00 p. m. the second business 
session. 7:00 p. m. public service, two sermons. Wednesday 



34 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

10:00 a. m. business session; Wednesday 2:00 p. m. General 
Fellowship Meeting ; 6 :00 or 7 :00 p. m. public service, two 
sermons; Thursday 10:00 a. m. public service, two sermons; 
2:00 p. m. public service, two sermons; 6:00 p. m. public ser- 
vice, two sermons. On Friday, post-Gymanfa sessions were 
held and the order was as follows: Friday 10:00 a. m. two 
sermons ; 2 :00 p. m. two sermons. At the close of the Friday 
afternoon session the people dispersed and went home. But 
this was not all, for on the Sunday following all the visiting 
ministers to Synod preached on the circuit while the local 
preachers of the circuit had a day off. 

Visiting Clergymen to the settlement, (Pregethwyr ai* 
Dro). It frequently happened that a preacher from Wales 
would visit the settlement, or a prominent preacher from 
some other Gymanfa of America, and when he came he was 
given an itinerary through the settlement. He would preach 
in all the larger churches, and this would be generally in the 
week time, preaching at one church in the morning, at another 
at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and in a church in one of the 
villages in the evening. Farmers would drop all their work, 
even in mid harvest, to follow the preacher from church to 
church. 

From the above list of church institutions and meetings, 
one may gain an idea of the highly organized condition of the 
settlement in a religious way and the prominent place given 
to preaching the gospel. They had their regular weekly 
prayer meetings and fellowship meetings in each church, and 
in the winter season they had singing schools and literary 
meetings in the different neighborhoods. We can readily see 
how the church kept the people busy and occupied preparing 
for these great functions. 

GROWTH 

The size of a Welsh colony may be fairly well estimated 
by the number of churches established, and the rapidity with 
which the colony grew may be conjectured from the rate at 
which new churches were erected in a given period. The de- 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 35 

eline of the community as a distinctively Welsh eommimity 
may be measured by the decline of the church as a Welsh 
church. This is particularly true of rural districts. 

The first thing the Welsh pioneer provides for, after the 
immediate care of the home, is the religious welfare of the 
community life. In Paddy's Run a Congregational church 
was organized in 1803 with ten charter members, six of whom 
were Welsh. Paddy's Run was at no time a pure Welsh 
colony. From the very beginning the Welsh of this commu- 
nity mingled with people of other nationalities. Its Welsh 
population numbered about 500 to 600 in its most flourishing 
period, from 1830 to 1850. During that time the church was 
practically a Welsh church with some English preaching. It 
was a Congregational Church because the Welsh who came 
there from Montgomeryshire were Congregationalists. 

The pioneers of the Welsh Hills were Baptists. They at 
one time belonged to the Union Church^ at Ebensburg, Penn- 
sylvania. The controlling spirit of that church, the Rev. 
Morgan Rees, was a Baptist, and the whole church was very 
soon influenced by his persuasion. The result was that when 
the Welsh settled in Licking County the church was organized 
as a Baptist church in 1808. No less than thirty of the earli- 
est communicants in this church had previously been members 
of the Union Church in Ebensburg. 

In the Jackson and Gallia settlement the first families who 
came there in 1818 worshipped with the Methodist Episco- 
palians in a nearby community. But when the new tide of 
Welsh immigration arose in 1834 the Welsh began to hold 
their own religious meetings, and to conduct them in their 
own language. The prevailing religious persuasion of the 
Cardiganshire Welsh is Calvinistic Methodist, hence the pre- 
vailing church in this settlement is Calvinistic Methodist. In 
1836 the inhabitants of the Jackson and Gallia colony erected 
their first church. So tremendous was the influx of Welsh 
from Cardiganshire that churches began to spring up year by 



1 See "The Cambrian" for August 1907, p. 346. 



36 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

year in other neighborhoods in every direction from the 
mother church. 

The writer knows of no better way to illustrate this fact 
of rapid growth than by enumerating the churches of Jackson 
and Gallia and giving the date of their organization, and 
thereby endeavor to show the rapidity wdth which the Welsh 
immigrants came into the different neighborhoods of the set- 
tlement. The churches of the Calvinistic Methodist denom- 
ination run as follows: — Moriah, the mother church, was or- 
ganized in 1835; Horeb, 1838; Centerville, 1840; Bethel, 
1841; Soar, 1841; Sardis, 1843; Bethania, 1847; Tabor, 1848; 
Oak Hill, 1851; Bethseda, 1856; Salem, 1862; Penuel, 1870; 
Jackson, 1880. While the Calvinistic Methodists were busy 
organizing churches, other denominations were likewise en- 
gaged though in point of number and strength they were 
eclipsed by the Calvinistic Methodists. The Congregational- 
ists during this period built six or seven churches. The first 
of the Congregational churches was built at Oak Hill in 1840. 
The Baptists had four churches and the Wesleyans one. Thui? 
it appears that some 24 or 25 churches were built by the Welsh 
of this settlement. Aside from these churches many Welsh 
Sunday Schools were organized in neighborhoods where 
churches did not exist. 

In Gomer, Allen County, the first church was built in 1845. 
This was a Congregational church. The Welsh colony grew 
in numbers and has kept its Congregational spirit throughout. 
Gomer and its environs constitute the stronghold of Welsh 
Congregationalism in Ohio. Besides the Gomer church there 
were two or three other Welsh congregational churches in the 
Gomer settlement. 

In Venedocia, Vanwert County, the three families who 
came there in 1848, held religious worship the first Sunday 
after their arrival. They worshipped in their cabins, princi- 
pally at Bebb's, until 1853 when their first church was built. 
The church in this settlement is Calvinistic Methodist. Many 
who came into this neighborhood were Congregationalists from 



THE COMING OF THE WELSH TO OHIO 37 

Llanbrynmair, North Wales, but the prevailing tendency was 
Calvinistic Methodist and that persuasion controlled. There 
were at one time four churches in this group, all of which 
were Calvinistic Methodist, though one of them was organized 
as a Union Church of Welsh Congregationalists and Calvinis- 
tic Methodists, but under the control of the Calvinists. One 
of the four churches has since been abandoned. The inuni- 
gration on the part of the Welsh from Jackson and Gallia 
Counties in the '60s helped to make Venedocia Calvinistic 
Methodist. 

We have then the following . four distinct Welsh settle- 
ments in Ohio for which Paddy's Run is in some way respon- 
sible : the Welsh Hills settlement in Licking County the popu- 
lation of which in its strongest period was about 400 or 500, 
with a Baptist church as the prevailing type of religious per- 
suasion, though other denominations organized their churches 
later ; the Jackson and Gallia settlement with a population of 
from 5,000 to 6,000, and its prevailing religious denomination 
is Calvinistic Methodist ; the Gomer settlement with a popu- 
lation of about 1,000 or ],500 and the Congregational church 
in control ; the Venedocia settlement in Vanwert County with 
a population similar to that of Gomer, or larger, and the 
church in power there is Calvinistic Methodist. 

The Radnor settlement numbered about 600 to 800 and its 
first church was Congregational though other denominations 
erected their churches later. 

All these settlements have had their influence in con- 
tributing to the make-up of the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio, as 
we shall have occasion to observe later. Radnor and the 
Welsh Hills were early sources of the Welsh of Columbus, and 
the Jackson and Gallia settlement along with Venedocia have 
given much to Columbus in later years. 

Each of these Welsh settlements has reached its summit as 
a flourishing community of the Welsh type, and is now 
descending the hill on the other side. The communities are 
rapidly becoming assimilated into the great American people. 



38 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

In Paddy's Run, the Welsh Hills, and Radnor the Welsh 
language has passed out of use in the church and home. In 
Jackson and Gallia Counties the language is still in use but 
is rapidly being supplanted by the English. In Gomer the 
change is rapidly taking place and in Venedocia as well, 
though the Welsh tongue prevails as yet in the latter in the 
church service. 

The descendants of the early Welsh families still live in 
these communities, scores of them, and many of them are well- 
to-do farmers. The land in Paddy 's Run is worth from $75.00 
to $125.00 per acre and in the Welsh Hills it is about the same. 
In Radnor, Gomer, and Venedocia farms are worth anywhere 
from $150.00 to $250.00 per acre. The descendants of the 
pioneers in the Jackson and Gallia settlement have not fared 
so well. The land there has not increased in value, as it has 
in the other settlements, after improvement. Some of the 
land is worth only from $6.00 to $10.00 per acre today, though 
many of the children of the early settlers are now well-to-do 
owing to interests in other enterprises such as coal mines, iron 
furnaces,! and the clay-brick industry. But the large majori- 
ty of them are on the farms. 



1 See "The Cambrian" for August 1891, p. 225. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 
The Location and Early History of Columbus 

Columbus, the capital of Ohio and the seat of Franklin 
Comity, is situated near the geographical center of the State 
on the banks of the Scioto Eiver, its business portion being 
just where the Olentangy River empties into the Scioto. The 
site of Columbus was at one time occupied by the Wyandot 
and other Indian tribes. 

The site was selected for the capital of Ohio by the legis- 
lature in 1812, partly as the result of the efforts of four citi- 
zens of Franklinton who had "formed a company to establish 
the State Capital on the high banks of the Scioto River oppo- 
site Franklinton." Columbus thus got its existence by the 
legislative act creating a home for the Capitol of Ohio on a 
site which was then practically an unbroken forest. 

The town was laid out in the spring of 1812, and on the 
18th of June in the same year the first land was sold at pub- 
lic sale. In 1815 the first census was taken and the population 
at that time was 700. In 1816 the town was incorporated as 
the borough of Columbus ; in 1824 Columbus was made the 
seat of Franklin County, and it was incorporated as a city in 
1834. 

Immediately after the town had been laid out improve- 
ments were begun and streets were platted. In 1825 the Ohio 
Canal, from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Portsmouth on the 
Ohio River, was commenced, and was completed in 1838. The 
Columbus "feeder" from Columbas to Lockbume, a distance 
of eleven miles, was completed in 1831. This gave Columbus 
water communication with Lake Erie and the Ohio River. In 
1836 the National Road from Wheeling, West Virginia, to 
Indianapolis, Indiana, passed through Columbus. The San- 
duskey turnpike, extending north from Columbus to San- 



40 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

duskey on Lake Erie, and other roads were in process of con- 
struction during this period all of which entered this mecca 
in the center of the State of Ohio, In 1841 the first railroad 
in Ohio was begun and in 1850 the first train steamed into 
Columbus over what was then the Columbus and Xenia Rail- 
road.^ 

After the town had been laid out and improvements be- 
gun Ohio's Capital was destined to grow. The building of 
the State institutions meant that here was employment for 
men engaged in many forms of labor, and thither they came 
in large numbers. These great institutions of the State gave 
employment to hundreds of men as well as did the canal, the 
public highways and the railroads of the same period, to say 
nothing of other great building projects of a public and pri- 
vate nature during that time. 

Contemporary with the rise of the great State institutions 
was the development of industries in Columbus. From its 
very location, in the center of a great industrial State and 
region, and its proximity to the great coal fields of Ohio, 
Columbus was destined to become an important industrial 
center. The growth of industry meant the rise of commerce. 
And presently, from 1850 on, we find railroad systems de- 
veloping in central Ohio until today there are about 15 rail- 
roads which enter the city. An idea of the rapid growth of 
Columbus may be obtained from a glance at Table I. below. 
The table after the first two figures is taken from the United 
States Census Report for 1910. 

TABLE I. 
General Population from 1815 to 1910 

1815 700 

1820 1,400 

1830 2,435 

1840 6,048 

1850 17,882 

1860 18,554 

1 i^ "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I. Chapter on Franklin 
County. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 41 

1870 31,247 

1880 51,647 

1890 88,150 

1900 125,560 

1910 181,511 

We have gone sufficiently into the investigation of the 
growth of Columbus to show that at a very early day it pre- 
sented great attractions to immigrants especially those of the 
artisan or skilled labor class. We are concerned here primar- 
ily, not with the growth of Columbus as such, but particularly 
with a certain group of immigrants who came to the city, viz. 
the Welsh who came to Columbus. 

Just how early in the history of Columbus the Welsh en- 
tered is impossible to ascertain. But that Welsh legislators 
had a part in selecting the site of Columbus and in giving it 
a name is evident. Kesolutions in the legislature referring to 
the site and the name were offered by two men by the names 
of Edwards and Evans. And when the final vote was taken 
on these resolutions six Welsh names appear on the roll call, 
viz. for the affirmative are the names of Evans, Edwards, T. 
Morris and D. Morris; on the negative side the names of J. 
Jones and T. G. Jones. Among the 17 citizens who had set- 
tled in Columbus as early as 1813 one name appears which 
may be that of a Welshman, viz. Jarvis.^ 

LOCATION ADVANTAGEOUS TO THE WELSH 
We have no record that the Welsh came to Columbus as 
pioneer settlers as we found them in the settlements of Paddy 's 
Run, the Welsh Hills, "Jackson and Gallia," and the other 
settlements studied in Chapter II. In fact we know next to 
nothing concerning the Welsh in Columbus previous to 1820. 
The position of Columbus, however, with reference to two 
Welsh settlements in particular was very advantageous, viz. 
the Welsh Hills in Licking County and the Radnor settlement 
in Delaware County. These two regions had been settled by 

1 See "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I., article by E. O. Randall, 
p. 618 eq. ; also "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio 
from its Earliest Times up to 1860," p. 5. 



42 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

the Welsh more than a decade before Columbus came into 
existence. The Welsh Hills settlement was about 30 or 35 
miles to the East and a little northeast of Columbus, and the 
Radnor settlement was about the same distance to the North. 
It is most natural that the young men who grew up in these 
settlements, as demand for workmen increased in Columbus, 
should turn to Columbus for employment and that their 
friends and countrymen who migrated from Wales should fol- 
low them in their search for work in the rapidly growing city. 
The Welsh people of these two commimities were in constant 
communication with friends and relatives in Wales and they 
informed them of the great opportunities offered to workmen 
in Ohio's Capital. 

PERIODS OF WELSH MIGRATEON 

While we have no definite trace of Welsh immigration to 
Columbus previous to 1820, from that time on, until the pres- 
ent day, Welsh immigration in one form or another has con- 
tinued. Welsh migration to Columbus falls naturally into 
three periods, viz: from 1820 to I860; from 1860 to 1885; 
from 1885 to the present time. The first period may be de- 
signated as the Period of Foreign Welsh Immigration to Co- 
lumbus. The second period, marks the decline of foreign 
Welsh immigration and a gradual rise of immigration on the 
part of the Welsh from local communities in the States, 
especially from communities in Ohio. The third period marks 
the cessation of foreign Welsh immigration and the rapid 
growth of immigration from local settlements in Ohio. 
THE FIRST PERIOD 

The first period (1820-1860) may again be subdivided in- 
to two smaller periods, viz. from 1820 to 1840 ; and from 1840 
to 1860. From 1820 to 1840, the immigration to Columbus 
was more or less indirect and was due to the influence of the 
Welsh Hills and Radnor settlements. People would come 
from Wales to join their friends and relatives in these colonies 
and in time would drift into Columbus to find employment. 

As early as 1822 a man by the name of Ebenezer Thomas 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 43 

in company with others owned and operated a woolen mill for 
carding, spinning and weaving. In the same year Thomas 
Cadwallader, John 0. Richards and Morgan Powell came to 
Columbus. By the year 1824 a sufficient number of Welsh 
people had arrived to constitute a church, when a Welsh Bap- 
tist church was organized.^ The influence of the Welsh Hills 
settlement may be seen here, for they were Baptists, and the 
first preacher to the new society at Columbus was a Rev. 0. 
Owens from Granville, Ohio. 

EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AGITATED IN WALES 

Beginning with 1840 and continuing until within a few 
years of the Civil War we find a great increase of direct im- 
migration from Wales to Columbus. They came from Mont- 
gomeryshire in North Wales. This was the county from which 
Ezekiel Hughes and Edward Bebb had come with their com- 
pany of Welsh immigrants in 1795 ; conditions in Wales were 
oppressive at that time and up to the middle of the 19th cen- 
tury had not improved but rather had grown worse. 

Samuel Roberts, a cousin to Governor Bebb, was a Congre- 
gational preacher of great power. His influence in that day, 
(the '40s and '50s), was mighty with the Welsh of Montgom- 
eryshire and throughout Wales. He took upon himself to 
champion the cause of the poor tenant farmer of his parish in 
Montgomeryshire and of the country round about Llanbryn- 
mair. He pled with the landlords and stewards for fair 
play. Having done all he could in this way, but without re- 
sult he began to attack them and to denounce landlordism 
bitterly. His efforts to change things in Wales were futile, 
but he did accomplish something definite. He succeeded in 
arousing a spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction on the part of 
the Welsh tenant farmer, with the result that scores and 
hundreds of the Montgomeryshire Welsh emigrated to Ameri- 
ca in the two decades from 1840 to 1860. A great many of 
these came directly to Columbus, while scores also came into 
Gomer and Venedocia, and hundreds settled in Western States. 



1 See "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus, &c." p. 8 sq. 



44 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

The following article published in "Y Cronicl," a Welsh 
periodical, for July 1852, will serve to illustrate the spirit of 
Rev. Samuel Roberts' agitation and his method of work.^ 

"The greater part of the agricultural communities of the 
Principality has suffered a great deal of insult and of mal- 
treatment. The landlords and stewards have for many years 
oppressed their most faithful tenants, and it is very difficult 
to arouse them to a sense of the unfairness and foolishness, 
and the consequent loss to themselves, of their oppressive con- 
duct. They would do well to study the following short chap- 
ter of "Facts Concerning Emigration." 

"1. This morning over 70 people, most of them young 
and in the flower of life, left Llanbrynmair for America. 

2. A larger number than that left a neighboring com- 
munity just recently. 

3. There are several families now arranging their affairs 
so as to be prepared to leave in the Autumn or early Spring 

4. Five or six such large companies, to say nothing of 
lesser groups, have left this neighborhood within a few years, 

5. Similar groups are leaving other communities, and 
they are increasing all the while. 

6. The old families would not leave the land of their 
fathers if there was any hope of earning a living at home. 

7. Hundreds of those who left this community in recent 
years are doing well in America. And they are continually 
not only urging their friends to follow them, but they are 
ready to send aid to their poor relatives to pay their transpor- 
tation. 

8. Within two months the writer has received £80 from a 
young workman in America toward paying the passage of 
some of those who left here this very morning. 

9. The inducements to emigrate are rapidly increasing. 
Five pounds is almost enough to pay the way of a strong 
young man, or a rosy cheeked young woman, from the bare 



1 See "Cofiant Y Tri Brawd o Lanbrynmair a Conwy," p. 50 sq. where 
this article is quoted. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 45 

and fruitless slopes Plimlimmon and Cader Idris to the 
wealthy valleys of Ohio and Missouri. 

10. The increase in traveling facilities together with the 
certainty of higher wages, better board, etc. are a great induce- 
ment to young people, who are strong and ambitious, to emi- 
grate from this land of poverty and oppression to a country 
where the rights of labor and religion are given more protec- 
tion and fair play than they are receiving here. 

11. The time to persuade a diligent laborer and a skilled 
workman to remain in Wales to half starve themselves, when 
they can receive for their services such fine wages in markets 
which are so inviting, free and convenient, is past. 

12. The population of this vicinity is less according to 
the last census than it was when the previous census was 
taken, and it would be still smaller were it not that strangers 
had recently come into our woolen mills. 

13. The fact that continual decrease is experienced in an 
agricultural district, which is thinly populated, is a sure sign 
that there is here some glaring unfairness on the part of land- 
lords and stewards. 

14. The best class of tenants are forced to believe that 
the day is near at hand when they too must give up their 
farms and follow their friends and relatives in the search for 
better and cheaper farms on the great Western Continent, and 
they can easily secure them. 

15. It is not easy for the landlords now to imagine the 
loss to themselves and to their children because of banishing 
these faithful, diligent, and economical tenants from their 
farms. And they certainly will repent, when it is too late, 
for treading under foot so cruelly the rights of the people who 
have served them with so much self-denial and faithfulness, 
endeavoring through a score of narrow straits to meet their 
rents. 

16. The landlords and stewards will never again have the 
opportunity to oppress tenants so obedient, humble, and sub- 
missive as those they are now crushing to ruin. The old 



46 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

schemes of indueiDg the inexperienced and of ensnaring them 
have been worn thread-bare. The door of hope, to diligence 
and labor, is open. The great continents of America and Au- 
stralia are open to receive, reward, and honor the skilled work- 
man, the faithful shepherd, the honest laborer and the op- 
pressed tenant. ' ' 

Add to this form of agitation on the part of Welsh leaders 
in Wales the visits made to Wales by individuals of influence 
who went back to Montgomeryshire from Ohio, and we have 
another direct incentive to Welsh emigration. We shall here 
mention one such person who exerted a great deal of influence 
in bringing many Montgomeryshire Welsh to Ohio and to 
Columbus. 

Rev. B. W. Chidlaw came to Radnor, Ohio, with his parents 
when a boy of ten years, in 1821. Within a few weeks aftei 
their arrival Chidlaw 's father died and the boy was left to 
care for his widowed mother. Chidlaw received his early re- 
ligious training at home with his mother and in the log chapel 
near Radnor. He got his elementary education in the log 
school-house in the same neighborhood. In August, 1820 
Chidlaw walked from Radnor to Granville. Ohio, in order to 
study Latin and Greek, preparatory to entering the Ohio Uni- 
versity at Athens later that year. In November he entered 
the Ohio University. A year or two later he entered the 
Miami University at Oxford. Ohio, walking all the way from 
Radnor to Oxford, a distance of 125 miles. In 1835 he gradu- 
ated from Miami University and was licensed to preach by 
the Oxford Presbytery. At the same time he received a call 
to the pastorate of the Paddy's Run Congregational Church. 
Before taking up work in this important field Chidlaw decided 
to make a trip to Wales with a view of improving his Welsh. 
the church at Paddy's Run at that time being carried on for 
the most part in the Welsh language. 

In the Autumn of 1835 Chidlaw spent two months in 
Wales and preached week-days and Sundays practically all 
the time he was there. In 1839 he made a second trip to 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 47 

Wales and this time he stayed there eight months. He was 
given an extensive itinerary in the vicinity of his old home in 
Montgomeryshire. Chidlaw preached daily and met with en- 
thusiastic inquirers wherever he went. People who wanted to 
learn more about life and opportunities in America, and 
especially in Ohio, met him at every turn.^ Chidlaw was a 
great agitator of "America for the Welsh," and the fact of 
his being a Welsh preacher reared and educated in Ohio en- 
couraged them in the belief that there were religious oppor- 
tunities in this country as well as chances for improvement in 
a material way. 

We insert the following illustration of Chidlaw 's agitation 
on his preaching tours in Wales. It is a story of personal ex- 
perience told by Mr. Edward Pryce of Columbus who is now 
the oldest Welsh resident of the city. "I came to Columbus," 
said Mr. Pryce in an interview, ' ' in 1840. At that time I was 
a lad of seven years. The Welsh of that period were nearly 
all from i\Iontgomeryshire. Rev. B. W. Chidlaw put us in 
the notion of coming to America. He was a preacher who 
lived with his mother at Radnor and had come back to Mont- 
gomeryshire for a visit. I well remember the night he spent 
at our home. He wore boots. That was the first time for me 
ever to see boots on a man's feet, and what puzzled me was 
how he could ever get them off. I remember it as well as 
yesterday. 

"Chidlaw told us of the great advantages for raising 
children in America. My mother took it all in for she had 
seven children. And she decided then and there to come here. 
Father objected to coming, but mother prevailed and we came, 
arriving in Columbus in June 1840, and I have lived here 
ever since." 

In addition to the deplorable economic and social condi- 
tions in Wales, revealed in Samuel Roberts' agitation, which 
stimulated migration together with the influence of individu- 
als, like Chidlaw, who visited their old homes and others who 
wrote glowing accounts concerning life and opportunities in 



1 See "The Story of My Life," Ch. V., p. 82. 



48 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIC? 

Columbus we have the fact of improved transportation facili- 
ties in this period. The National Road from Wheeling, West 
Virginia, on the Ohio River was completed. Also the San- 
duskey Turnpike which connected Columbus with Lake Erie 
by land. And still more attractive to the immigrant was the 
Ohio Canal, which brought Columbus into water communica- 
tion with the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Immigrants who 
landed at Baltimore and Philadelphia came overland to Pitts- 
burg, then down the Ohio River to Portsmouth, thence up the 
Canal to Columbus. Others came from the North up the St. 
Lawrence River through the lakes to Cleveland and from 
Cleveland down the Canal to Columbus. We have record of 
Welsh immigrants coming to Columbus by both these routes. 
And we have finally to mention the development of the rail- 
roads after 1850 which eclipsed all other modes of travel. 

THE WELSH OF THE FIRST PERIOD WERE 
SKILLED LABORERS i 

An old City Directory of Columbus (1842-1843) contains 
the names of 38 Welsh people. Five are names of females, 
five are of males whose occupations are not mentioned. The 
names of 28 males appear whose occupations are given. 
Twenty-three of the twenty-eight named were skilled laborers. 
The little pamphlet by Mr. L. D. Davis, entitled ''Some Facts 
with References to the Welsh of Columbus, Ohio from the 
Earliest Times up to I860," gives a brief obituary mention 
of many of the early Welsh of Columbus, giving (i) the date 
of their birth; (ii) the date of their marriage; (iii) the part 
of Wales from which they came; (iv) the year of their arrival 
in Columbus; (v) their occupation and religious preference, 
and (vi) the date of their death. This booklet reveals the 
fact that at least three-fourths of the Welsh who came to Co- 
lumbus previous to 1860 came from Montgomeryshire and 
that a very large percent of them were skilled laborers, and 
among them a great many carpenters and plasterers. 

1 Just how many of the early Welsh were skilled laborers when they 
came to the city we have no means of ascertaining, perhaps not many for the 
large majority of them came from an agricultural district in Wales, but on 
their arrival in Columbus they evidently applied themselves to the trades. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 49 

The Welsh were found working in the different industries 
such as the John Demming Threshing Machine Company, and 
Neil and Moore's Coach Shop, the Joseph Ridgeway Com- 
pany, manufacturers of all kinds of machinery, and other 
similar places. 

THE SECOND PERIOD 

The second period (1860-1885) marks the gradual decline 
of direct foreign immigration from Wales to Columbus and a 
corresponding rise of immigration from the local Welsh settle- 
ments. The decline of immigration from Wales was due 
largely to the fact that other States west of Ohio were offering 
tempting attractions to immigrants. The booming of Western 
States appealed to the poor immigrant from Wales. The con- 
sequence was that Welsh immigrants entered these States in 
large numbers. An idea of the way the Welsh went westward 
may be had from the fact that from 1864 to 1870 over 240 
Welsh families settled in Missouri alone. ^ 

THE "MILL MEN" COME 
While the immigrant directly from Wales traveled west- 
ward there were attractions in Columbus which appealed to 
a special class of w^orkmen, namely, the ''mill men. " The rise 
of industry, the mills and shops, attracted workmen of that 
class. For example : the Steel Rail Company which organized 
a mill for the manufacture of steel rails attracted a great 
many iron workers in the '70s. The company engaged a 
Welshman by the name of Lewis as superintendent. Lewis 
came from Pennsylvania. The habit of the Welsh iron work- 
ers of that day was to follow their leader, so along with Lewis 
came many of his former workmen, the majority of whom 
were Southwaleans. Another Welshman by the name of 
Lewis w^as bookkeeper for the company, and almost all of the 
important positions such as foremen, engineers, etc. were held 
by Welshmen. In conversations with Welsh residents of Co- 
lumbus, many of whom worked in the Steel Rail Mill in that 
former day, the writer has been given various estimates as to 

1 See "Cymry America," p. 84 sq. 



50 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

the percent of Welsh working in the mill. Some gave it as 
their opinion that three-fourths of the employees were Welsh, 
others gave an estimate of two-thirds and no one gave a lower 
estimate than one-half. The mill was abandoned some twenty 
years ago. Some of the Welsh left at that time but many of 
them remained in the city, finding employment with other 
firms. 

The Hayden Company had a great many Welsh people in 
their employ. David Price, a brother of Edward Pryce^ 
mentioned above, was 17 years of age when he came to Colum- 
bus with his parents in 1840. David Price was connected with 
the Hayden Company for 45 years. At first he was a teamster 
for Hayden, then he clerked in the store. Finally he became 
foreman of all the outside work for Hayden, having complete 
charge of teams, the hiring of men, etc., a sort of general 
manager of outside affairs. David Price helped the young 
Welsh boys a great deal. He was a man of unusual energy 
and push. He knew the city and was known by all. When a 
Welshman arrived in the city in search for work he was di- 
rected to Price, who always assisted him in finding employ- 
ment. Price gave the young Welshmen positions at Hayden 's, 
either temporarily or permanently, and he helped scores of 
them secure good positions elsewhere in the city. 

IMMIGRATION FROM LOCAL SETTLEMENTS IN OHIO 
During this period the tide of immigration on the part of 
the Welsh from the Jackson and Gallia settlement turned from 
Cincinnati to Columbus. This began in 1860 when the Rev. 
R. H. Evans, who was raised in the settlement, became pastor 
of the Calvinistie Methodist Church in Columbus. The next 
to come from this settlement was a woman who came as house- 
keeper for a man in Columbus, who had a brother living in 
the settlement. She came in 1863. The same year Mr. L. D. 
Davies was brought to Camp Chase as a paroled prisoner of 
the Civil War. At the close of the War in 1865 Mr. Davies 
came to Columbus and settled there permanently in business 

1 These two brothers spelled their names differently, one with a "y" and 
the other with an "i". The spelling of the name "y" in Pryce is the original. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO m COLUMBUS 51 

as a grocer. He was followed by his brother in 1867 accom- 
panied by another young man from the settlement. After 
that time Welsh immigration from the Jackson and Gallia 
settlement kept increasing. By 1873 there were about 15 
people from the settlement in Columbus and in the decade 
which followed a great many more came. 

The causes of migration from Jackson and Gallia may 
be briefly summed up as follows: (i) Their farms were small 
and not verj' productive, so the young sought employment in 
the city, (ii) Cincinnati was not so attractive to them as in 
former years. ^ The city had grown and consequently the 
Welsh population had scattered. The pastor of the Welsh 
church of that period was not so strong socially as his prede- 
cessor had been, (iii) The development of railroads in cen- 
tral Ohio made Columbus very accessible to the people of the 
settlement, (iv) Wages were good and many forms of oc- 
cupation were available in Columbus, (v) Columbus was 
not as large as Cincinnati and the Welsh were grouped to- 
gether about their church, (vi) Rev. R. H. Evans came to 
the Columbus church directly from Jackson and Gallia settle- 
ment. He was followed by the Rev. David Harris as pastor. 
Mr. Harris came to Columbus from Ironton which is also in 
the Jackson and Gallia Presbytery. Harris had been a tomb- 
stone maker and had traveled extensively through the settle- 
ment. He knew all the people of the community, first as 
business man, then as minister. His influence brought many 
to Columbus, (vii) Men from the settlement came to Co- 
lumbus as members of the legislature from their district, and 
they advised the young of Jackson and Gallia, who were seek- 



1 For many years previous to 1860 the Welsh from Jackson and Gallia 
flocked into Cincinnati. Scores of Welsh girls found employment in the best 
homes of the city. The young men also entered the shops and factories of 
Cincinnati and many of them learned trades. Poverty at home forced them to 
seek employment elsewhere. Cincinnati was accessible to the Settrement by 
water down the Ohio River. The fact that there was a good Welsh church in 
Cincinnati helped to attract them there, and it encouraged the parents to 
allow their children to go to Cincinnati. The first two pastors of the Cincinnati 
C. M. church were Revs. Edward Jones and Howel Powell. These men were 
very strong socially, and they paid great attention to the young men and 
women who entered the city from country homes. The Welsh C. M. church 
during the late '50s and early '60s had a membership of 350; two-thirds of 
them were from Jackson and Gallia, and about one-third of them were servant 
girls. 



52 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

ing for positions in the city, to go to Columbus, (viii) When 
the children were established in good positions their parents, 
in many cases, followed them to Columbus. 

THE THIRD PERIOD 

The third period of Welsh migration to Columbus, (1885) 
is marked by a decided decrease in direct immigration from 
Wales and the rapid increase of immigration from the local 
Welsh settlements in Ohio. The decrease of foreign Welsh 
immigration amounts to what may be regarded as almost a 
complete extinction of the direct foreign immigration on the 
part of the Welsh to Columbus. 

The trend of migration during the past 25 years may be 
seen from Table II. in the Appendix.^ Table II. has been 
compiled from the records of the Calvinistic Methodist Church 
of Columbus. The Table shows the total number received into 
the church by letter in the past 25 years, (viz. from 1885 to 
1909 inclusive). In the table there are 28 columns showing 
the sources from which the members came, the name at the 
top indicating the church. The column at the left shows the 
year in which they came. The two columns marked "totals," 
one at the right and the other at the bottom, shows (i) the 
total which came each year, and (ii) the total which came 
from each church in 25 years. The columns of this table are 
also grouped in such a way as to indicate what churches are 
grouped together, belonging to the same vicinity. 

This table, to be sure, does not include all the Welsh who 
have come to Columbus in the past quarter of a century. For 
many who came here went to the Welsh Congregational 
Church, others went to English churches in the city and still 
others to no church at all. But the table does indicate the 
trend of the Welsh immigration during this period. 

The first 15 columns are of churches in the Jackson and 
Gallia Presbytery, and all of these may be said to belong to 
the Jackson and Gallia settlement with the exception of four. 
And these four have contributed the least of any of the 



1 See Appendix A. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 53 

churches individually of the entire 15. They are Ironton, 
Portsmouth, and Pomeroy on the Ohio River and Coalton in 
Jackson County. These four collectively gave to the Calvin- 
istic Methodist Church of Columbus only 22 out of 466 mem- 
bers which came by letters from that Presbytery. All the 
rest came directly from the settlement except Jackson town 
people, and they must be counted as a part of the settlement 
for the Welsh population of Jackson grew out of the settle- 
ment. 

The next large group is that of Vanwert and Putnam 
Counties consisting of five churches. The Sugar Creek Church 
in Putnam County is separated from the others by some 15 or 
18 miles. But it is a neighboring settlement and may be 
thus considered with the Venedocia settlement in Vanwert 
County. From the Venedocia and Sugar Creek group 135 
members have come in the past 25 years, the most of these 
came in the late '90s and thereafter. The remainder are from 
various places in Ohio, as the table indicates, and from other 
States, and from Wales. 

The total coming to the Calvinistic Church by letters in 
the past 25 years is 801. Of this total 466 came from Jackson 
and Gallia Presbytery, and 135 came from the Venedocia and 
Sugar Creek group. In other words 601 out of the 801, or 
three-fourths of the entire number came from these two dis- 
tricts alone. Of the remaining 200 members, 125 were scatter- 
ing in Ohio, including those who came from English churches 
in Columbus; 43 were from other States, and only 35 came 
directly from Wales. From this it is fair to conclude that 
direct immigration from Wales to Columbus had practically 
stopped by 1885, and that there was a great influx of Welsh 
from rural districts in Ohio, particularly from Jackson and 
Gallia and from Venedocia and Sugar Creek, is evident.^ 

The Welsh from the Jackson and Gallia settlement were 
variously employed when they came to Columbus. Many 
were artisans and they entered the mills and shops. Others 
were employed as carpenters, plasterers, painters, stone 

1 See Figure I. on page 54. 



Figure 1 




a r-] 


:ra.2. 


b m^ 


/6 s 


c ^ 


/X4 


d mi 


5 .^ 


e ^^ 


4 A 


Figure 1 is a graphic representation of Table II, appendix 

The segments are as follows : 
Segment a. Jackson and Gallia. 
Segment b. Vanwert and Putnam. 
Segment c. All others in Ohio. 
Segment d. Other States. 
Segment e. Wales, G. B. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 55 

masons, bricklayers, and some were common laborers. Many 
found work in the State Institutions, while others clerked in 
stores and found positions as bookkeepers, and many of the 
young women were employed as house servants in the best 
homes in the city. 

The new arrivals from Jackson and Gallia were received 
and cared for by friends and relatives who had already be- 
come established in the city. The grocery store of Mr. L. D. 
Davies was for many years practically an employment bureau 
for the Welsh who flocked into the city from the Jackson and 
Gallia settlement. 

ORGANIZATION AND CHANGE 

The first period (1820-1860), was a period of organization 
and rapid changes according to shifting conditions. The be- 
ginning of church activities is a good illustration of this fact. 
The first Welsh church organized in 1824 was Baptist. The 
worshippers met in the homes of the members until 1830 when 
they occupied a building on Mound Street between Fifth and 
Sixth streets. In 1831 the society resolved to build a church. 
The church was erected and was ready to be occupied by May 
1832. The English Baptists had no church, consequently 
some English preaching was allowed in the Welsh church. 
Then the clash came. A dissension arose and in the Autumn 
of 1832 a number of the Welsh members went out of the 
church and organized a new Baptist church under the leader- 
ship of Rev. John Harris. At the beginning the services were 
carried on entirely in Welsh in the new church. But later on, 
the English speaking Baptists had to be reckoned with again 
with the result that occasional sermons were preached in the 
English language. The colored Baptists also worshipped with 
them in this society for a short time but they withdrew and 
organized for themselves in 1834, 

There were, therefore, in 1833 two Baptist churches or- 
ganized under Welsh auspices. Both societies were weak and 
they maintained an existence with great difficulty. Their case 
was taken up by the Baptist Missionary Society with the re- 



56 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

suit that a new society was formed which absorbed both of 
the Welsh societies. The new (third) church was English. 
In the roll of its charter members this church had 9 Welsh 
people, and on the committee appointed to build a new church 
edifice the name of Rev. John Harris appears. From these 
facts it is evident that the Welsh were prominent in founding 
the Baptist interests in Columbus. The new church built on 
the corner of Rich and Third streets was occupied in 1837 and 
by 1840 it had a membership of over 200, many of whom were 
Welsh. 

While the Baptists v.ere passing out of existence as a 
Welsh church another Welsh society was in process of forma- 
tion under the direction of Rev. James Hoge, the father of 
Presbyterianism in Columbus. This church was organized as 
a Union Welsh church with a charter membership of 12, nine 
of whom were women and three men. At first meetings were 
held in a schoolhouse located in an alley north of Broad Street 
between High and Front streets The location of the meeting 
house was subject to many and frequent changes until a frame 
church building was erected on Town Street between Fifth 
and Sixth streets. The church was dedicated as a Mission 
church under the auspices of the First Presbyterian Church. 
The lot for the building was donated by the Presbyterians. 
This church passed through its period of struggle. One faith- 
ful member by the name of Davies (y Saer) was there alone 
many a time simply to keep the door open, awaiting a brighter 
day for the Welsh church. Conditions improved and all went 
well for a time and they succeeded in building a church for 
themselves in 1845. But the Union Church, like their Baptist 
brethren, after they had accomplished the definite and difficult 
task of building a house of worship, quarrelled and the result 
was a division. 1 

The real cause of the "split" was that during the '40s 
many of those who came to Columbus from Wales were Cal- 
vinistic Methodists. The Calvinists wanted more Calvinism 
in the church. One member of the Union Church who was a 



1 See "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus &c." p. 12 sq. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 57 

Calvinistic Methodist wrote to a friend in Wales urging him 
to come to Columbus to assist in organizing a Calvinistic 
Methodist Church, giving as his reason that the present ar- 
rangement in the Union Church was very imsatisfactory to 
the Calvinistic faction. He also stated that he believed that 
the dissatisfaction then existing would continue and increase 
until the Calvinistic Methodists organized for themselves. 
The friend came to Columbus in 1848, and the Calvinistic 
faction went out from the Union Church and organized a 
church for themselves with 28 charter members. This re- 
duced the Union Church to 12 members, the same number as 
it had when it organized ten or more years before. From this 
time on the Union Church was known as the Welsh Congrega- 
tional Church ; and they worshipped in their church on Town 
Street until the early '90s when they erected a new and com- 
modious building on the corner of Washington Avenue and 
Gay Street. 

The Calvinistic Methodists after organizing with 28 char- 
ter members held their meetings for a year or more in the 
homes of Edward Herbert and Evan Reynolds on the corner 
of East Long and Fourth Streets. In 1849 a new church edi- 
fice was erected on the corner of East Long and Fifth Streets. 
It was occupied in 1850 and the same year the church was 
received into the Western Presbytery of the Welsh Calvinistic 
Methodist Synod of Ohio. 

Since that time there have been two Welsh churches in 
Columbus, viz. the Welsh Congregational Church and the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church. The Calvinistic Methodist society 
found it necessary to move from its crowded quarters on the 
corner of East Long and Fifth streets and in 1887 a new com- 
fortable auditorium with a seating capacity of 800 or more 
was built on the corner of East Long and Sixth streets. The 
Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church is prosperous and grow- 
ing, having a membership at present^ of 512. The Welsh 
Congregational Church has not grown in recent years. Its 



1 January Ist 1910. 



58 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

resident membership is a little over 100, and nearly half of 
this number are foreign born. This church has but few mem- 
bers under 21 years of age. 

COMMUNITY SPIRIT 

The early Welsh were clannish and lived close together 
about their church. At first they lived south of Broad Street. 
This may be seen from th location of their churches. The 
Welsh Baptist Church organized in 1824 held its first meetings 
on Mound Street, between High and Front Streets, and the 
church built in 1835 was on the corner of Rich and Third 
Streets. The Union Church held meetings at first, (1837), in 
an alley north of Broad Street between High and Front 
Streets; then for a few years on the corner of Fourth and 
Oak Streets and finally they erected a church edifice on Town 
Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets. 

As the city grew the new comers began to settle farther 
away from the business portion of the town toward the north 
and north-east into the region north of Long and east of High 
Street, as far as Cleveland Avenue. Thus it was that when 
the Calvinistic Methodists broke away from the Union Church 
they worshipped in the homes of Herbert and Reynolds on the 
corner of East Long and Fourth Streets, and later built a 
church in the same neighborhood. So numerous were the 
Welsh in the vicinity of East Long and Fifth streets^ that the 
neighborhood was known as "Welshburg;" and the neighbor- 
hood about the corner of Chestnut and Third streets was call- 
ed " Jonesborough. " 

Many of the so-called "mill men" who came to Columbus 
in the '70s lived in the vicinity of Welshburg and Jonesbor- 
ough while a large number of them lived near the Steel Rail 
Mill in the Goodale Street district formerly known as "Fly- 
town." Some of the people who came to the Goodale Street 
district in the days of the Steel Rail Mill and who bought 
property for themselves at that time still live there, but these 
now are few in number. 

1 See "Some Facts with Reference to the Welsh of Columbus &c." pp. lij 
and 48. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 59 

The Welsh from local communities in Ohio had not started 
to come to Columbus in any considerable numbers until after 
1860. When they did come they began to settle in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the Welsh Church, The Welsh community 
at this time began to assume larger proportions, reaching out 
farther east and north-east, its boundaries in a general way 
being on the South, East Broad Street; on the West, North 
High Street; on the North, East Naghten and Buckingham 
streets, and on the East as far as Lexington Avenue. The 
fifth ward at one time teemed with Welsh people. 

LITERARY AND SOCIAL FUNCTIONS 

The literary meetings were occasions of great interest to 
the Welsh of Columbus in the early days. The literary meet- 
ing was a great event in a literary and social way. Here the 
young and old alike would compete in music, poetry, recita- 
tions and sight reading. Great interest was aroused by these 
meetings, competition was often very keen and there was a 
great spirit of rivalry and this sometimes resulted in bitter 
feelings in the community. 

Singing schools are now a thing of the past, but these were 
at one time very popular in Welsh society, and to them very 
largely is due the credit for good Welsh congregational sing- 
ing. But the singing schools and the church choir practice 
were not always appreciated by those in authority in the 
church. At one time the choir of the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church had to provide its own kerosene oil for rehearsals. 
EISTEDDFOD 

The Eisteddfod is to the state or nation what the literary 
meeting is to the local community. It is a literary meeting 
on a large scale. It is broader in its scope than a literary 
meeting. It is State or Nation-wide in its scope. To the 
Eisteddfod, competing choirs come from all parts of the coun- 
try. Welsh men of letters from a large radius send their 
literary productions to the Eisteddfod. Columbus once had 
an Eisteddfod association ; this was in the '70s, and Anthony 
Howells, Ohio's State Treasurer, was treasurer of the Eistedd- 



60 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

fod Association. Great Eisteddfods were held but owing to 
the panic of 1875-1876 the Association was dissolved though 
successful Eisteddfods have been held since that time.^ 

DONATIONS 
Compensation to the minister for his service was at first 
meagre, but the annual donation to the minister was an event 
of great interest. Mrs. Kinney, the daughter of David Price, 
has in her possession what was known as the "Donation 
Book." The Donation Book is a relic of that early day. The 
book was owned by Mrs. Kinney's father who, while he was 
not identified with the church, took great pleasure in securing 
the annual donation for the Welsh preacher. This little book 
contains the names of subscribers and the amount subscribed 
by them for several different years in the '60s. Sometimes the 
donations amounted to more than $200.00. 

AMUSEMENTS 
The pioneer Welsh were very conservative and amusements 
generally were condemned. Card playing, theatre going, 
dancing, and similar social pleasures, were not tolerated by the 
church. Formal parties among the young people were not 
allowed. But the young gathered together for good times 
nevertheless. And in their gatherings they played such 
games as kissing games in kissing parties which would be 
frowned upon in Welsh society today. The Welsh are very 
conservative in all things. They are slow to adopt anything 
new. It was under a storm of opposition that the small organ 
was introduced into the church service. In matters of dress 
the older Welsh were very modest. Perhaps no church in 
Columbus had a congregation more modest and sombre in its 
wearing apparel than the Welsh congregation in former years. 

THE WELSH PROMINENT IN COLUMBUS 
The early Welsh of Columbus were prominent in the pub- 
lic affairs of the city from the very beginning. They served 
as County Commissioners, Infirmary Directors, City Council- 

1 Recently a new Eisteddfod Association, known as "The Columbus Ohio 
Eisteddfod Association" has been formed. 



THE WELSH OF OHIO IN COLUMBUS 61 

men, etc. A man bearing the Welsh name of George Williams 
was County Commissioner in 1820. On the City Fire Depart- 
ment in 1850-1851 there were eight Welshmen. In the or- 
ganization of Capital University in 1850 the name of William 
M. Eeynolds, preacher and professor, appears, as well as 
Thomas Roberts, one of the directors. The Rev. Edward D. 
Morris, D. D., LL. D. was pastor of the first Presbyterian 
church in the '50s. After that he was professor in Lane The- 
ological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 30 years. Dr. Mor- 
ris now resides in Columbus. Perhaps the best known Welsh- 
man who ever lived in Columbus is William Dean Howells, 
"America's leading writer of fiction," who came to Columbus 
at the age of 14 years. Here he earned his first money, as 
compositor on the Ohio State Journal, with a salary of $4.00 
per week.i 

CONCLUSION 

Three important influences which stimulated immigration 
to Columbus stand out clearly in the foregoing pages: (i) 
The underlying cause was ecomonic; then, (ii) The influ- 
ence of religious leaders and (iii) the controlling place of the 
church in Welsh society is very evident. Hardships and op- 
pression in the fatherland resulting from the tyranny of land- 
lords and stewards made life a drudgery for the poor Welsh 
tenant farmer. Migration to America was their door of hope. 
In the Jackson and Gallia settlements the poverty of the land 
forced the young from the settlement to seek employment 
elsewhere. The development of industries in Columbus and 
the great demand for workmen together with increased trans- 
portation facilities made Columbus both attractive and ac- 
cessible. 

The influence of religious leaders is also an important con- 
sideration as is the controlling place of the church in Welsh 
society. Just as Williams controlled in the Jackson and 
Gallia settlement, so did the preacher exert a great influence 
in attracting the Welsh to Columbus. Samuel Roberts was 
creating a dissatisfaction in Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. 

1 See "Historical Collections of Ohio" Vol. I., p. 327. 



62 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Chidlaw went to that very community and told of the great 
advantages in America, and, especially in Ohio, for his old 
home was in Radnor. Then came Evans and Harris from the 
Jackson and Gallia Presbytery as pastors to Columbus, and the 
trend of migration on the part of the young of the settlement 
changed from Cincinnati to Columbus. We do not claim for 
the religious leaders entire control in the matter of this change 
from Cincinnati to Columbus as may be seen from the discus- 
sion, but that they exerted a great influence no one will doubt. 
Welsh parents felt safe to have their children in the care of 
these men of the church. 

The controlling place of the church may be seen in the 
fact that the Welsh lived in a group about their church. The 
first thing a Welshman asks when anticipating a change from 
one place to another is. What are the religious advantages? 
and religious advantages to him means the existence of a Welsh 
church. When for any reason a church moved a few squares 
from its original meeting place, such as from Town Street to 
the corner of East Long and Fifth Streets, we find all the new 
comers to Columbus settling in the immediate vicinity of the 
church location. It should be noted also that the early church 
controlled not only the location of the Welsh, but it also gov- 
erned their social life for a long period. 

The Welsh church in Columbus today has lost, to a very 
great extent, its controlling place both in directing the resi- 
dence of its adherents and in its social control of Welsh 
society. A more complete discussion of this will be given in 
a subsequent chapter. 



CHAPTER IV. 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 
General Statement 
The population of Columbus at present is 181,511. Further 
details of the last census for cities have not been issued by the 
Bureau of the Census up to the time of this writing. What 
the Census Report of 1910 may reveal is not known, but, 
judging from the Census Reports of the past, nothing of any 
great value for the detailed study of such a small group as 
the Welsh of Columbus can be looked for. Below is a table 
of what the census reports have given concerning the Welsh 
of Columbus from the beginning up to the present time. 

TABLE III. 

The U. 8. Censxis Report on the Welsh Population of 
Columbus, Ohio. 

1900 1890 1880 1870 

Born in Wales 595 607 559 415 

Both parents born in Wales 1,400 1,273 

Father born in Wales and mother 

bom in U. S 427 252 

Mother born in Wales and father 

born in U. S 232 141 

Father born in Wales and mother in 

some other foreign country 84 68 

Mother born in Wales and father in 

some other foreign country 86 65 

The above table taken from the Census Report shows that 
previous to 1870 no report was given by the United States 
Census Bureau regarding the Welsh population of Columbus. 
In 1870 the number of persons born in Wales was 415; in 
1880 the number was 559. When we come to the report for 
1890 we are given some additional information, and likewise 



64 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

for 1900. The additional items are: (i) the number of 
native born Welsh whose parents were born in Wales, (ii) the 
number having one parent born in Wales and the other in the 
United States, (iii) the number having one parent born in 
Wales and the other in some other foreign country. The total 
Welsh (either full blood or part Welsh) in Columbus in 1890 
according to this report was 2,406; and in 1900 the number 
was 2,824. There was a slight decrease in the number of 
foreign born Welsh, viz. from 607 in 1890 to 595 in 1900. 
While there was a slight increase in the number of native born 
of foreign parents, viz. from 1,273 in 1890 to 1,400 in 1900. 
The other items show a corresponding slight increase. 

From this report it is impossible to know just how many 
were of pure Welsh blood, except those born in Wales and 
those whose parents were born in Wales. For, when we come 
to those, one of whose parents was born in Wales and the other 
in the United States, it is impossible to know whether the one 
born in the United States was of Welsh blood or of some other 
nationality. Likewise in the case of those whose parents were 
born one in Wales and the other in some other foreign coun- 
try, we are not told what foreign country, so we are given no 
clue as to the trend of intermarriage between the Welsh in 
this country and the people of other nationalities. 

It is evident, therefore, that it would be impossible to se- 
cure any definite and satisfactory results with reference to 
the Welsh of Columbus from the scanty reports given out con- 
cerning them by the Bureau of the Census. The Census Re- 
ports do well perhaps when dealing with the large masses, but 
for details regarding a small and limited group, such as we 
are now considering, they are very unsatisfactory, being too 
general in their scope. 

THE GATHERING OF DATA FOR THE 
PRESENT WORK 

During the writer's stay of about three and one-half years 
in Columbus an effort was made under the auspices of the 
Calvinistic Methodist (or Welsh Presbyterian) Church, and 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 65 

under the direct supervision of the writer, to obtain more 
specific knowledge with regard to the Welsh of the city. To 
this end a canvass of the city was made. The primary object 
of the canvass was not sociological, but for the purpose of the 
church, the idea being to learn the real sphere and function 
of the "Welsh church in its relation to the Welsh population 
of Columbus. Had the object been sociological primarily, 
more data bearing directly on this work would be available. 
But from the data accumulated by the church and for the 
church purpose many interesting facts of a sociological nature 
have been gleaned. The canvass was begun the first of 
January 1910 and completed in May of the same year. The 
work was done by one person and his knowledge of the Welsh 
people of Columbus doubtless surpasses that of any other 
citizen. He has lived in Columbus since the close of the Civil 
War. Shortly after coming to Columbus in 1865 he became 
established in business as a grocer. This gave him a wide ac- 
quaintance in the city. Moreover he has been an officer in the 
Calvinistic Methodist Church for over 25 years and his interest 
in the church is vital. Such in brief are the qualifications of 
the man who made the canvass. 

It was deemed unnecessary to make a house to house can- 
vass of the whole city. The method employed was to take the 
Directory of the City of Columbus and to go through it col- 
umn by column with care, making notes of Welsh names and 
addresses and of any other names which savored of Welsh. 
After thus selecting the names, the canvasser was advised by 
the clerk in the City Directory's office of the way that office 
arranged and classified its material for systematic work. The 
canvasser followed the direction in every detail of instruction, 
and with good results.^ 

The canvasser was provided with record-cards for his 
work. The record-card was arranged in such a way as to 
make records for single males or single females, or for hus- 
band and wife and for children in the family where there 

1 It took five weeks for the canvasser to collect materials and classify 
them for the canvass before the field work was actually begun. 



66 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

were children. The record-card contained the following ques- 
tions: (i) Name? (2) Address? (3) Occupation? (4) 
Age? (5) Foreign or native born? (6) Rural or Urban? 
(7) Foreign or native parents? (8) Speak or read Welsh? 
(9) Old home? (10) Number of years lived in Columbus? 
(11) Member of church? Where? (12) Attend church? 
Where? (13) Educational advantages? (14) Economic and 
social condition? (15) For families of children (a) Sons? 
Names? (b) Daughters? Names? (c) Ages of each? (d^i 
Members of church? (e) Of Sunday School? (f) Attend 
Grade School? (g) High School? (h) College? (i) Do 
children speak Welsh? (j) Where do children attend church? 
From the returns of these record-cards much information, 
vital and interesting, was obtained, and from this information 
most of the statistics in this and the following chapters have 
been compiled and arranged. This has been supplemented 
by work of a similar kind, but of a more detailed nature, 
which the writer himself did in his own church and society. 
Inquiry and personal interviews with many elderly and lead- 
ing Welsh citizens of Columbus was also a source of important 
information. 

LIMITATIONS OF THE WORK 
A complete and perfect knowledge of the Welsh of Colum- 
bus on the basis of this canvass is not claimed. This was not 
possible in such a canvass, nor could it have been possible had 
a systematic house to house canvass of the entire city been 
made. For the canvasser made what he termed "back-calls" 
at some addresses as many as four or five times and found no 
one at home. Another difficulty was found in trying to locate 
Welsh females who had married males of other nationalities. 
Here the City Directory was helpless, the name giving no clue. 
But even with such persons the canvasser 's wide acquaintance 
with the Welsh and his knowledge of the city in general were 
a great aid in this work, and he learned of many through con- 
stant inquiry wherever he went in the city. It is needless to 
say that the canvasser made scores and hundreds of calls on 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 67 

families and individuals who were not Welsh. This was 
especially true of certain streets in the colored districts where 
the negroes had such names as Davis, Jones, Williams, and 
other names common among Welsh people. These names on 
his list, the canvasser disposed of as he went along. 

While we are glad to make every allowance possible re- 
garding the limitations of the work, it may be fairly claimed 
that this canvass is more accurate and gives more information 
concerning the Welsh of Columbus than anything else pro- 
duced up to the present time. We know of no similar work 
done among the Welsh of any city or community in the United 
States. The canvass reveals an abundance of details regard- 
ing the Welsh of Columbus which cannot be obtained from 
any other source. The Census Bureau cannot attempt such 
details. 

CLASSIFIED GROUPS 
The total number of Welsh people in Columbus enumerated 
in this canvass is 3,174. The Census Report for 1900 gives 
2,824, and for 1890 it gives 2,406.i There are three degrees of 
classification made herein, viz. 1. The Calvinistic Methodist 
Church and society, which has been studied with more detail 
than was possible in the general canvass of the city. This 
group numbers 672. II. Those who were regularly and 
carefully written up on the record-cards by the canvasser. 
This includes every adult whose record was written up in the 
first 14 questions of the record-card. This group is styled 
Regularly Classified and it numbers 1,273. III. The third 
group is that of children whose classification begins with ques- 
tion 15 on the record -card. This group we designate as In- 
complete Classification. The total of this group is 1,229. 
These then are the groups: 

I. The Calvinistic Methodist Church and society 672 

II. The Regularly Classified 1,273 

III. The Incomplete Classification 1,229 

The total of these groups is 3,174 

i These figures show that there was a gain from 1890 to 1900 of 418, and 
from 1900 to 1910, according to our canvass, a gain of 350 over the Census 
Report of 1900. 



68 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

GENERAL SURVEY OF THE WELSH POPULATION 
OP COLUMBUS 

According to our canvass there are 3,174 Welsh people in 
the city of Columbus. This includes the children of mixed 
marriages as well as those who are full blood Welsh. From 
the canvass made, a fair estimate of the entire Welsh popula- 
tion would be about 3,600. 

The Welsh not a Foreign Group. — The study of the Welsh 
of Columbus of today is not that of a certain number of 
foreigners of the same nationality grouped together in one 
section of the city with their manner of life, their habits and 
institutions, unchanged as yet through contact with American 
life and spirit, such as a study of an Italian or Hungarian 
group in some of our large cities might be. Such a study of 
the Welsh in Columbus would be very interesting were it pos- 
sible. And such a study might have been possible in the 
Welsh society of Columbus, 50 or 60 years ago, in the days of 
*'Welshburg" and *' Jonesborough." 

But the study of the Welsh of Columbus at present is 
quite a different problem. It is the study of a people who 
have been influenced by American life and institutions ; influ- 
enced by social intercourse for several decades; influenced 
through business and economic relations; influenced through 
intermarriage with other nationalities; influenced linquisti- 
cally through commercial intercourse and especially, for the 
children, through the public schools. Many of the Welsh of 
Columbus are of the third and fourth generation of Welsh 
people in America, and some perhaps older. Many of these, 
while of pure Welsh blood, have no strong national prejudices 
to overcome. They have never learned the Welsh language, 
and their parents do not speak it, and language plays an im- 
portant part in Welsh nationality. When a Welshman loses 
his native tongue, it is difficult to distinguish him from any 
other normal American citizen. Church and religion are also 
thought to be elements in the make-up of the Welshman, and 
of this we shall have occasion to speak later. 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 69 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE WELSH OVER COLUMBUS 

Previous to 1850 the Welsh of Columbus lived south of 
Broad Street. Later they moved north and north-eastward 
to the vicinity of East Long and Fifth Streets. There they 
lived in a compact group in the immediate vicinity of the 
church. Today they are scattered, more or less, all over the 
city. To be sure, many of the older families who bought 
property and settled in the locality of Welshburg still remain 
there. Others who came in the '70s and '80s and bought 
property on Cleveland Avenue, East Spring Street, and Kel- 
logg Avenue still retain their homes on these streets; but the 
children of these families, who have married in recent years, 
have located in other parts of the city. It is claimed that of 
the members of the Calvinistic Church scarcely a family lived 
more than five or six squares away from the church as re- 
cently as 12 to 15 years ago. Today many of them are found 
in the remote parts of the city. Some of them live in the 
extreme West Side beyond the State Hospital; others in the 
North End beyond the Ohio State University, but the great 
majority of those who have located in other parts of the city 
in recent years have gone east and southeastward. There is 
not at present a single Welsh family among the members of 
the Calvinistic Methodist Church that lives south of Broad 
Street and west of Parsons Avenue. The new comers from 
Jackson and Gallia and elsewhere, previous to 12 or 15 years 
ago sought homes in the Welsh community in the immediate 
vicinity of the church, but they do so no longer. The new 
comer of today goes either east or north to find a home. 

The reasons for leaving the vicinity of the church are: 
(i) Street car facilities are improved so that people can get 
to church and to business with comparative ease from distant 
parts of the city, (ii) Homes and rents in the new and 
modern houses are cheaper in these districts which are farther 
from the business center of the city, (iii) Foreigners, such 
as Italians, are forging from High Street into the old vicinity 
inhabited almost exclusively by the Welsh in former days. 



70 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

The Welsh will continue to leave this old vicinity more and 
more in the future. The general trend of the great majority 
of them is toward the east and southeastern part of Columbus. 

Columbus, for convenience in speaking of it, is divided 
into ends and sides. Viz. the East Side and West Side, and 
the South End and the North End. High Street divides the 
city into east and west and Broad Street divids it into north 
and south. People are generally spoken of as living on the 
East Side or West Side, or in the North End or South End. 
For the sake of convenience in tracing the distribution of the 
Welsh over Columbus the writer has followed these general 
divisions and has made some smaller subdivisions. The di- 
visions are as follows : 

The South End. — The South End as described here em- 
braces that part of Columbus which is south of Broad Street, 
west of Parsons Avenue, east of the Scioto River, due south 
to the city limits. 

The North End. — The North End embraces all the region 
north of the Big Pour tracks entering Union Station, to the 
north, east, and west city limits. 

The West Side. — The West Side embraces that portion of 
the city which is west of the Scioto River and south of Broad 
Street, south and west to the city limits ; also the portion west 
of North High Street, north of Broad Street and south of the 
Big Four tracks entering Union Station, west to the city limits. 

The East Side. — The East Side embraces that portion of 
Columbus east of North High Street, north of Broad Street 
and south of the Big Four tracks entering Union Station, 
east to the city limits; also the portion of the city south of 
Broad Street and east of Parsons Avenue, south and east to 
the city limits. This last we designate as the Southeast Cor- 
ner of the city. 

According to these divisions the Welsh are distributed 
over the eitv as shown in table IV. 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 



71 



TABLE IV. 

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WELSH OVER THE 

CITY OF COLUMBUS 

Total From In Welsh 

Number General C. M. 

Part of eity addresses Canvass Church 

South End 90 87 3 

West Side 183 172 11 

North End 391 377 14 

East Side 664 441 223 

Totals! 1,328 1,077 251 

The figures in table IV. above represent addresses on 
cards regularly filled in the General Canvass of the city and 
those of the Calvinistic Methodist Church. The canvasser re- 
turned 1,136 record-cards, of these 59 were with addresses 
omitted or indistinguishable. The remaining 1,077 were scat- 
tered over the eity as indicated in table IV. Likewise the 251 
addresses of families and individuals connected with the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church are distributed over the city as per 
table. 

Smaller groups were also formed of the several divisions. 
For the South Side no smaller divisions were made.^ Of the 
West Side two subdivisions were made, viz. (i) from the 
eastern boundary as given above to the Hill Top, or Midland 
Avenue, and (ii) from the Hill Top to the west city limits. 

The North End is subdivided into two general divisions, 
and these two into three lesser groups respectively as follows : 

(i) All the region north of the Big Four tracks entering 
Union Station and west of North High Street, subdivided as 
follows : 

(a) From the Big Four tracks north to 1st. Avenue and 
w^est to the city limits, 

(b) From 1st Avenue north to 11th Avenue and west to 
the city limits. 

1 The reader must bear in mind that the figures in table IV. represent, 
not individuals but addresses, and that whole families have the same address 
in some cases^ while in others the address is that of an individual. 

2 See rough outline map of Columbus on next page. 










T 







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-"-iDDDppPD Dagpyyy L 




WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 73 

(c) From 11th Avenue, north and west to the city limits. 

(ii) All the region north of the Big Four tracks entering 
Union Station, east of North High Street, east and north to 
the city limits, subdivided as follows : 

(a) From the Big Four tracks north to 1st Avenue, east 
to the city limits. 

(b) From 1st Avenue north to 11th and Woodward Ave- 
nues, and east to the city limits. 

(c) From 11th and Woodward Avenues to the north and 
east city limits. 

Of the East Side three divisions are made as follows : 

(i) All the region east of North High Street and north 
of Broad Street as far as the Big Four tracks entering Union 
Station, east to Hamilton Avenue. 

(ii) The region north of Broad and south of the Big Four 
tracks east of Hamilton Avenue to the east city limits. 

(iii) All the region south of Broad Street and east of 
Parsons Avenue, south and east to the city limits. 

For the South End no smaller divisions were made, the 
total there being only 90, and only 3 of the 90 are addresses 
of people belonging to the Calvinistic Methodist Church, and 
the three are addressses of individuals. Thus we see that 
there is not a single Welsh family south of Broad Street in 
the region west of Parsons Avenue identified with the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church today. This is significant in view 
of the fact that the early Welsh community, grouped about 
its church, was almost entirely south of Broad Street and west 
of Parsons Avenue. The Welsh are distributed according to 
the subgroups above for the West Side, North End and East 
Side as follows: 

West Side total 183; (i) From eastern boundary to Hill 
Top 130 ; 9 of these are addresses of people in the Calvinistic 
Methodist Church, (ii) From the Hill Top to the west city 
limits, 53 ; 2 of these are in the Calvinistic Methodist Church. 

For the North End, first division, (a) 80; none of 
which are addresses of persons in the Calvinistic Methodist 



74 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Church and society, (b) 173; 5 of these are addresses of 
people in the Calvinistie Methodist Church and society, (c) 
17; 3 of these are addresses of persons in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church and society. 

Second division, (a) 25; one of them is in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church and society, (b) 45; 2 are addresses of 
persons in the Calvinistie Methodist Church and society, (c) 
50; and 3 of these are addresses of persons in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church and society. 

Over the East Side the Welsh are distributed according to 
the above subdivision as follows: (i) First division, 331; 
167, or a little over one-half of them, are addresses of people 
in the Calvinistie Methodist Church, (ii) Second division, 
205; 37 of these are addresses of people in the Calvinistie 
Church and society, (iii) Third division, 128; 19 of them 
are addresses of people in the Calvinistie Methodist Church 
and society. 

When we recall that scarcely a family in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church 12 or 15 years ago lived east of Hamilton 
Avenue, and that now we have 56 addresses of people in that 
church who are living east of Hamilton and Parsons Avenues 
(about 50 of the 56 being addresses of families in that church, 
the remainder being of single individuals) one realizes how 
the Welsh are rapidly abandoning the old stamping ground, 
and the once much cherished neighborhood of Welshburg, in 
the immediate vicinity of the church. That there are 167 
addresses of families and individuals in the immediate vicinity 
of the church shows that the tendency on the part of those 
who settled there in an early day is to retain their homes near 
the church. But this study of the distribution of the Welsh 
over the whole city proves beyond a doubt that the Welsh 
have scattered greatly in the last decade, or a little more. 
POPULATION BY AGE CLASSES 

Our data for the population by age classes is not sufficient- 
ly complete in the general canvass of the city, owing to the 
fact that the answers to the subdivisions of question 15 on the 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 75 

record-cards were not complete enough to be relied upon for 
the purpose of this work. From question 15 to the end of the 
questions on the record-cards, let us be reminded, is what we 
have designated as "Incomplete Classification." For the 
statistics on this subject we are compelled to use the smaller 
group of the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society, the 
total of which is 672.1 

In the first Age-class (those five years old and under) 
there are more males than females, and likewise in the second 
age-class, (childhood, 6 to 15) . In the third age-class, Youths, 
there are more females than males. But for the total under 
the "Maturity" class the males are in excess of females by 2, 
the total of each being 107 males and 105 females. In each 
of the remaining age-classes the females are in excess as may 
be seen from the table. One reason for this excess of females 
in the maturity age-class is the large number of domestics in 
the roll of the church membership ; there are 35 domestics, or 
servant girls, in the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society. 
Another reason is, the large percent of widows over widowers ; 
there are 40 widows and only 17 widowers. 
SEX 

Of the entire 3,174 Welsh people canvassed in Columbus, 
1,704 were males and 1,470 were females. 2,368 of the whole 
number were of pure Welsh blood and 806 were children of 
mixed marriages. Of the full-blood Welsh 1,945 were adults 
regularly classified, and of these 1,077 were males and 868 
were females; 423 of the full-blood Welsh were children of 
Welsh parents not regularly classified, and of these 211 were 
males and 212 were females. Of the 806 children of mixed 
marriages 416 were males and 390 were females. 

This does not represent accurately the percent of Welsh 
males and females in the city for no doubt there were many 
females who married males of other nationalities that were 
not located by the canvasser. It is likewise very probable 
that many Welsh domestics were not found by him. 



1 See Appendix B. 



76 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Statistics on the relative fecundity of full-blood and mixed 
marriages would be interesting and profitable if such could be 
ascertained. But our canvass dealt with the Welsh of Co- 
lumbus, and children who had grown up in homes and had 
left the city were not recorded, consequently our statistics are 
not complete enough for such analysis. 

THE FOREIGN AND NATIVE BORN 

The great majority of the Welsh of Columbus are native 
bom. From the two groups regularly classiled, viz. the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church and society and the Regularly 
Classified in the general canvass, there are 672 and 1,273 re- 
spectively, making a total of 1,945. The analysis of this num- 
ber may be seen by consulting table VI. ^ 

To the total of native bom as indicated in Table VI. may 
be added the "Incomplete Classification" group which num- 
bers 1,229, as follows: 

Children from mixed marriages 806 

Children from Welsh parents 423 

The children from mixed marriages are doubtless all native 
bom. And the children of Welsh parents in this group are 
in all probability very nearly all native born. Granted that 
this be true, our number of native born is 2,778, as over against 
396 foreign born Welsh in the city. The percent would be 
87.5 native born, and foreign born 12.5 percent. To be sure, 
if every Welsh person in the city had been canvassed, the can- 
vass would show more than 396 foreign bom Welsh. But 
there would be a corresponding, or greater, increase in the 
total number of native bom Welsh as well. 

THE PLACE OF BIRTH 

The birth-place of the foreign born Welsh of course is 
Wales. The greater part of the early settlers came from 
Montgomeryshire in North Wales. Thereafter a great many 
Southwaleans came here into the mills, and indirectly from 
local settlements in Ohio. 



1 See Appendix 0. See »lso Figure 2 on opposite page. 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 



77 



Figure 2 




CZ] 



T3 h 



Figure 2 is a graphic representation of table VI. page 94. 
The segments are as follows: 

Segment a. The total native born. 

Segment b. The total foreign born. 



78 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

We cannot give the exact birth-place of the Welsh of Co- 
lumbus, but what is even more interesting and perhaps more 
important, in the study of a limited group such as we are now 
considering, is to know where the people were raised and 
what the early influences were which surrounded them up to 
the age of manhood or maturity. With this idea in view ques- 
tion 9 on the record-card was: ''Where was your old home?" 
By "old home" we mean the place where the person was 
brought up. The object in asking such a question was to find 
out whether the person was raised and surrounded in his 
youth and formative period of life by Welsh influences such 
as he would have if he were reared in Wales or in a rural 
community in this country thickly populated by Welsh people, 
such as Jackson and Gallia. The very next question on the 
record-card was "How many years have you lived in Colum- 
bus?" A person may have been foreign born, but owing to 
leaving Wales with his parents when a mere child, as many 
of the present Welsh of Columbus did, he would give another 
place as his ' ' old home. ' ' 

Our returns from the general canvass gave interesting re- 
sults in this line of inquiry. From the Regularly Classified 
group we here give 914 who filled out the "Old Home" col- 
umn. Others were scattering, where less than four were given 
for a community we did not make record of them. Likewise 
of those in the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society we 
give place names of the "Old Home" of the adults for whom 
cards were regularly filled out, but not for children in the 
families. Most of the children are raised in Columbus. Of 
this group we have 419. 



WELSH POPULATION STATISTICS 79 

TABLE VII. 

THE "OLD HOMES''^ OF TEE WELSH OF 
COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Total From the In the 

Place number. General Canvass. C. M. Church 

Columbus 447 394 53 

Jackson and Gallia 396 166 230 

Wales G. B 235 168 67 

Vanwert and Put- 
nam Counties . . 64 12 52 
Hocking Valley . . 58 56 2 
Licking County . . 44 42 2 
Delaware County.. 30 28 2 

Pomeroy 22 21 1 

Ironton 14 9 5 

Allen County.... 11 11 

Portsmouth 7 6 1 

Martin's Ferry... 4 4 

Totals 1,333 914 419 

It is very significant that out of 447 who stated that 
Columbus is their "old home" only 11.7 percent are in the 
Calvinistie Methodist Church, while out of 396 who gave Jack- 
son and Gallia settlement as their "old home" 58 percent are 
in the Calvinistie Methodist Church ; and out of 64 who gave 
Venedocia in Vanwert County and Sugar Creek in Putnam 
County as their "old home" 81.2 percent are in the "Welsh 
Calvinistie Methodist Church. Of the 235 who gave Wales 
as their "old home" only 28.6 percent are in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church. The trend of these figures prove that the 
supply for the Welsh churches in Columbus in the past 25 

1 The reader will observe the distinction made between "Old Home," and 
"Foreign Born." 67 persons in the C. M. church gave Wales as their old 
home, while 127 of the members were foreign born. That means that 60 out 
of the 127 came to this country in childhood and could not call Wales their 
"old home." The writer has one person distinctly in mind who has the fol- 
lowing record: She came from Wales with her parents when she was two 
years old. She lived with her parents in Jackson and Gallia until she was a 
young woman of 25 or more. She then moved to Columbus and is a mem- 
ber of the C. M. church at present. This person is recorded as follows: 
Foreign Born, but "Old Home," Jackson and Gallia Settlement. 



80 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

years or more has come from the rural districts of Ohio and 
not from Columbus itself nor from Wales. 

CONCLUSION 

The "Welsh church in the past has lost many of its children 
because of refusing to adapt itself to their need through its 
too great allegiance to the "Welsh language. This is made 
clear in the fact that only 53 out of 447 Welsh people who 
give Columbus as their "old home" are in the Calvinistic 
Methodist Church. Only 29 persons in the Calvinistic Metho- 
dist Church are the direct descendants of the old Welsh 
families of Columbus, but there are scores of them in the Eng- 
lish churches of the city. They are lost to the Welsh church 
through lack of adaptation on the part of the church, and be- 
cause of manifold other influences they are gradually being 
assimilated into the American population of the city. 

In very recent years things have changed. The Welsh 
church is now adapting itself to its children, and they are 
being held to the Welsh church even though they are being 
assimilated otherwise into the American population of Colum- 
bus. All of which means that the Welsh church of the city 
is rapidly coming to recognize the fact that it must change in 
order to minister to its own people. 



CHAPTER V. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 
General Statement 

The Welsh people of Columbus are no longer a small group 
located in one particular part of the city with immediate com- 
munity interests and influenced more or less exclusively by 
their own local group. They are scattered all over the city 
and are influenced by environments other than Welsh in their 
respective neighborhoods. On the other hand they are bound 
together, as Welsh people, by ties common to themselves and 
to this extent they are more or less independent of their re- 
spective localities in their interests. The chief bonds here 
are the literary and improvement societies, the Welsh 
language, and the Welsh church. 

With this brief introductory statement, let us give our 
attention to the following topics for discussion in this chapter 
on Social Statistics: Marriage and Conjugal Relation; 
Families, Dwellings, and Residence districts; Occupation and 
Business Relations; Education; Literary and Improvement 
Societies; Morality and Temperance; Politics; Church Mem- 
bership, 

MARRIAGE AND CONJUGAL RELATION 

Our study of marriage and conjugal relation among the 
Welsh of Columbus is concerned chiefly with an investigation 
of the extent to which the Welsh people tend to cling together 
through marriage, by an endeavor to ascertain the relative 
number of Welsh who marry within their own nationality and 
the number who intermarry with persons of other nationali- 
ties. 

At one time it was looked upon with great disfavor and 
even as a disgrace for a Welsh person to marry outside of his 
own nationality. No matter how respectable an American, or 
a person of any other nationality, might be, to marry him was 



82 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

to "lose class" to a great extent in Welsh society. Perhaps 
the chief cause underlying this prejudice was the question of 
the Welsh language and church. For it was a foregone con- 
clusion that the children brought up in a home from such a 
union would not be taught the Welsh language, and not know- 
ing the Welsh language they could not enjoy the full benefit 
of religious instruction in the Welsh church. Everything in 
the Welsh church a decade and more ago was carried on in the 
Welsh language. 

There was a church rule, also, which was in force about 25 
years ago which caused much discomfort to the young Welsh 
person who was a member of the church and who fell in love 
with a person who was not a member of the church, whether 
that person was Welsh or of some other nationalty. The law, 
or rule, was called ' * Y Seithf ed Rheol. ' ' Translated it means 
"The Seventh Rule." The Seventh Rule was based on the 
words of Saint Paul in II. Corinthians 6:14, which read as 
follows: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbe- 
lievers." Based upon these words, The Seventh Rule was 
made to the effect that no member of the church should mar- 
ry a person outside of the church. For a short time this rule 
held sway and was rigidly enforced. Church members who 
married non-church members were churched. There is a 
deeper law, however, which governs society, and such a rule 
of the church could not last long and like many other drastic 
measures it spent itself and today it is never heard of in the 
Welsh church. 

INTERMARRIAGE 

"There are many influences tending to merge the foreign 
born population with the native bom in the United States. 
The most natural and effective way of welding diverse nation- 
alities or races into one nation is by intermarriages between 
foreigners and natives of different nationalities. Thereby is 
brought about a mixture of blood and community of customs 
and habits of life which efface any previous differences."^ 



1 See "Statistics and Sociology' 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 83 

Professor Mayo-Smith further states, however, that "we shall 
not be able to trace this statistically for the statistics of mar- 
riage in the United Staes are neiher accurate nor complete, 
and do not give the nationality of the bride and groom." 

In our study of the Welsh of Columbus we have endeav- 
ored to do this very thing. We have endeavored to trace the 
extent to which the Welsh cling together in their marriage 
relations, and, on the other hand, we have sought to know 
how far amalgamation has gone on through intermarriage 
with people of other nationalities. It was not possible for us 
to ascertain from the results of our canvass whether the people 
of other nationalities, such as Irish and Germans with whom 
the Welsh intermarried, were foreign or native bom. 

The result of our inquiry along this line is given in three 
tables, viz. VIII., IX. and X. These tables are compiled from 
the returns of our general canvass of the city, the Calvinistic 
Methodist Church not being considered in these tables. ^ 

Table VIII. shows, (i) the total number of marriages; (ii) 
the number of marriages between Welsh persons; and (iii) 
the number of mixed marriages. Table IX. shows the number 
of mixed marriages between Welsh males and females of other 
nationalities, and the nationalities into which they have mar- 
ried ; and Table X. does the same for Welsh females who have 
married males of other nationalities. 

The total number of marriages recorded in this canvass, 
as indicated by the above mentioned tables, is 653, Of this 
total 525, or 80.4 percent, are mixed marriages; while only 
19.6 percent are marriages between Welsh persons.^ The per- 
centages for the three largest groups, viz. the foreign bom 
Welsh, the native born of foreign parents, and the native born 
of native parents, run as follows : Total number of marriages 
on the part of foreign born Welsh, 108; percent of these be- 
tween Welsh persons. 38.8 percent of marriages between per- 
sons one of whom was Welsh and the other of some other 
nationality, 61.2. The total number of marriages on the part 

1 See Appendix D. 

2 See Figure 3 on page 84. 



84 



THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 



Figure 3 




Figure 3 is a graphic representation of Table VIII., 
pendix D. The segments are as follows: 

Segment a. Total number of mixed marriages. 
Segment b. Total marriages between Welsh persons. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 85 

of native born of foreign parents, 185; percent of these be- 
tween Welsh persons, 10.8; percent of marriages between per- 
sons one of whom was Welsh and the other of some other 
nationality, 89.2. Total number of marriages on the part of 
native bom of native parents 212; percent of these between 
Welsh persons, 6.1 ; percent of marriages between persons 
one of whom was Welsh and the other of some other national- 
ity, 93.9.2 

It is evident that the tendency to intermarry with persons 
of other nationalities increases as we get farther away from 
the foreign bom Welsh group. When we realize that the 
largest group in the three mentioned above is the native born 
of native parents, viz. 212, and that only 6.1 of these married 
Welsh with Welsh, it shows a condition of rapid assimilation 
on the part of the Welsh of Columbus outside of the Calvin- 
istie Methodist Church. 

In the Calvinistic Methodist Chuch there are 25 mixed 
marriages or marriages between Welsh persons and persons 
of other nationalities. They run as follows: Foreign born 
Welsh with persons of other nationalities, 4; native bom 
Welsh of foreign parents with persons of other nationalities, 
11 ; Native bom having father foreign and mother native, 4 ; 
Native born having father native and mother foreign, 1; 
Native bom of native parents, 5. Almost one-half of this 
group of mixed marriages are from the native born of foreign 
parents class, or, counting those one of whose parents is for- 
eign and the other native, more than one-half, viz. 15 out of 
25, as over against 5 of the native born of native parents class. 
The reason for this doubtless is that the Welsh of a marriage- 
able age in the Welsh church for some time past have been the 
native born of foreign parents group, while many of the native 
born of native parents who intermarried left the Welsh church 
with their partners and joined an English church, consequent- 
ly there is more intermarriage on the part of the native born 
of foreign parents class than any other in the Welsh church 



2 See Figure 4 on page 86 and 87. 



86 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 



Figure 4 

Figure 4 is in three parts : — 

1. The marriages of foreign born Welsh. 

2. The marriages of the native born of foreign parents. 

3. The marriages of the native bom of native parents. 

The size of the circles represents the relative number of 
marriages in each group. The segments " a " and " b " in each 
circle represent: 

a. The total number of mixed marriages. 

b. The total number of marriages between Welsh persons. 




I I 6/.£ 

100.0 

Total number of marriages on the part of foreign bom 
Welsh represented in the above circle is 108. 




/0.8 

ds.z 



/oo.o 

Total number of marriages on the part of native born of 
foreign parents represented in the above circle is 185. 



3. 




6./ 
93. 9 



10 0. 
Total number of marriages on the part of native born 
Welsh having native parents represented in the above circle 
is 212. 



88 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

at present. Never before was there as large a number of 
mixed marriages in the Welsh Calvinistie Methodist Church 
in Columbus. 

Tables IX. and X. show the relative number of males and 
females in each group of mixed marriages, giving also the 
nationalities into which they married. From a comparison 
of the two tables it appears that a much larger percent of 
males have intermarried with other nationalities than of 
females. The reason for this, very largely no doubt, is our 
inability to locate the females who have married males of 
other nationalities. So while the numbers here given are 399 
Welsh males who have married females of other nationalities, 
126 Welsh females who have married males of other nationali- 
ties, or 74 and 26 percent respectively, it cannot be claimed 
to represent the situation accurately, for the Welsh females 
have perhaps intermarried with other nationalities quite as 
much as the Welsh males have. The percentage of Welsh 
males and Welsh females in the Calvinistie Methodist Church 
and society who have intermarried with other nationalities 
points in this direction, as well as general observation on the 
part of the writer. Of the 25 mixed marriages in the Calvin- 
istie Methodist Church, 16 were marriages between Welsh fe- 
males and males of other nationalities, and 9 were between 
Welsh males and females of other nationalities. Moreover, 
out of 17 marriages solomnized by the writer as pastor of the 
Calvinistie Methodist Church in three years time, marriages 
contracted between persons one of whom at least was a member 
of his church, 9 were between Welsh persons, and 8 were be- 
tween persons one of whom was Welsh and the other of some 
other nationality. Of the 8 mixed marriages, 7 were between 
Welsh females and males of some other nationality, and only 
one was on the part of a Welsh male with a female of another 
nationality. Judging from this very limited group, the tend- 
ency to intermarry with other nationalities is greater among 
Welsh females than Welsh males. But this may be an ex- 
ceptional group in this respect; at any rate it is too limited 
to give any definite conclusions. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 89 

Furthermore, the relative numbers of nationalities into 
which the Welsh have intermarried as represented in tables 
IX. and X. cannot be regarded as exact, or absolutely accu- 
rate. For this reason we do not reduce them to percentages 
for comparison. The number of Germans, Irish, etc., are 
accurate as here stated. But the column marked ' ' American ' ' 
cannot be claimed as accurate for the reason that it is difficult 
to state what an American is, or who is an American. For 
example, a person whose ancestors came from Germany, or 
whose father and mother were both born in Ireland, may call 
himself an American, and properly so. The rule followed 
here has been to state the nationalities as German or Ameri- 
can, and so on, just as they were given in the record-cards. 
While the column marked "American" may contain the 
names of other distinct nationalities, the fact that the Welsh 
have freely intermarried with other nationalities is substan- 
tiated throughout, and that they are rapidly becoming assim- 
ilated into the great American people is proved without a 
possible question of doubt. Were it possible to add here the 
classification of children who are only half Welsh, and con- 
tinue this to those who are one-fourth and one-eighth part 
Welsh, we would readily see how the Welsh, as such, are van- 
ishing and losing their identity, through amalgamation, into 
what we may call the American people. 

FAMILIES, DWELLINGS AND RESIDENT DISTRICTS 
Our statistics from the general canvass of the city on this 
subject do not give information sufficiently accurate to draw 
conclusions from them. So, for our knowledge on this phase 
of our inquiry, we are compelled to satisfy ourselves with the 
statistics of the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society 
alone, the total of which is 672. 

In this group there are 190 families. The average size of 
a family is 3.8. They run as follows : Families consisting of 
one member, 9 ; families consisting of two members, 46 ; fam- 
ilies consisting of three members, 43; families consisting of 
four members, 35; families consisting of five members, 19; 



90 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

families consisting of six members, 19 ; families consisting of 
seven members, 10; families consisting of eight members, 7; 
families consisting of nine members, 2. There are no families 
of more than nine members. There are 40 widows and 17 
widowers in this group. 

These are days of small families among the Welsh of Co- 
lumbus. Mr. L. D. Davies, in his pamphlet on the Welsh of 
Columbus previous to 1860, refers to large families, and we 
observed in a foregoing chapter that the early Welsh of Jack- 
son and Gallia, and other settlements in early days, also had 
large families. While Mr. Davies makes no point of enumer- 
ating the families and their respective sizes, he refers to some 
as being very large and incidentally mentions the number of 
children in some of the families. He refers to one family 
which came to Columbus in that period and which later moved 
to Brown Township, as having 15 children, all of whom were 
living at home at the same time. Another family of eleven 
children is mentioned, and two families having ten children 
in each, three families having eight children and three having 
seven children. In January 1910, there were 26 married 
couples in the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society with 
no children; 40 families with but one child, while only two 
families had as many as seven children. 

To discuss the causes for this condition with any degree of 
satisfaction is not easy. But doubtless there are at least two 
contributing causes, and perhaps more, (i) Economic con- 
siderations have their influence; inability to support large 
families affects this problem. Then (ii) closely linked with 
the economic consideration is the social reason, viz. the desire 
to properly rear children born to the home, and consequently 
the desire to have a limited family to whom good advantages 
may be given. 

Regarding dwellings and residence districts it may be said 
that the Welsh generally speaking live in comfortable homes. 
The large majority of them belong to the skilled labor class. 
and live well; they occupy houses having from six to eight 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 91 

rooms. The dwellings of the Welsh, to be sure, represent the 
two extremes, and they reside in parts of the city representing 
the extremes of wealth and poverty. The streets and localities 
where they are found are somewhat indicative of their social 
welfare. Some of the Welsh own very fine homes on Broad 
Street, while others live in dingy huts in the poorer sections of 
the city such as west of North High Street on either side of the 
railroad tracks. The writer has visited a poor widow, who 
supported herself by washing, living in a one room cottage 
with just a kitchen attached to it in the rear. For this cot- 
tage she paid $3.00 per month rent. She was is poor health, 
suffering from asthma and had to rely on charity for aid when 
she was ill and unable to earn a living. Such cases are rare 
among the Welsh, and very seldom do we find a Welsh person 
dependent on charity. The average Welsh home is comfortable 
and well equipped with good furniture, well located on re- 
spectable and improved streets, and its inhabitants enjoy a 
wholesome and comfortable living. 

In the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society over 50 
percent of the families own their homes. While not all are 
free from incumbrance, many of them own property besides 
their homes. And while less than 50 percent are renters, 
even some of those who rent are property holders and a large 
number of single persons are property owners in the city. 
Many are in business for themselves, and some may be classed 
as "well-to-do." 

The Welsh of Columbus are thrifty and live well, but with 
it all they practice a wholesome economy. They are saving 
without being stingy. They are home-lovers and make much 
of home life. Their hospitality is phenomenal. Their child- 
ren are well trained in diligence, and have a good knowledge 
of the practical things of life. Seldom will one find a girl 
brought up in a Welsh home who is not familiar with all the 
details of practical housekeeping. Nor do they neglect the 
cultural phase of life in the home. They have good books. 
Very little trashy literature will be found in the average 



92 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Welsh home. They make much of music. As a rule the home 
where there are children has a piano, and Welsh children are 
taught to sing as well as to play on musical instruments. 

OCCUPATION GROUPS AND BUSINESS RELATIONS 

The following statistics are based on the returns from the 
Regularly Classified group in the general canvass and from 
the statistics of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church and 
society. Three classifications are made according to occupa- 
tion groups, with an additional group of occupations unclassi- 
fied. 

The three general Occupation Groups classified are: (i) 
Professional and Official Group, (ii) Those having to do 
with Commerce and Transportation, (iii) Those who are 
connected with Manufacture and Mechanical Industry, (iv) 
The fourth group is that of occupations unclassified. The 
total of Welsh persons who gave their occupations is 966, and 
they are distributed as to occupation groups as follows: The 
largest occupation group is the Commercial and Transporta- 
tion Group. It numbers 409, or 41.5 percent of the entire 
working force of Welsh people here considered. Of the Com- 
mercial and Transportation Group, the commercial clerks, 
bookkeepers, stenographers, salesmen, both city and traveling, 
constitute 65.6 percent of the group, or 27.2 percent of the en- 
tire working force of the Welsh people in Columbus according 
to our canvass. A little less than one-third of the Commercial 
clerks are in the Calvinistic Methodist Church and society. 
About one-third of the entire clerkship force are females. 
Railroaders constitute 8.7 percent of this occupation group, 
and they are 3.6 percent of the entire working force of the 
Welsh people. 

The next largest occupation group is that of persons con- 
nected with Manufacturing and Mechanical Industry. In this 
group there are 323 persons, or a little more than one-third of 
the entire working force here considered. 244 of these are 
from the general canvass, and 79 are in the Calvinistic Metho- 
dist Church and society. The largest class in this occupation 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 93 

group are the carpenters and joiners of whom there are 63, 
or 20.1 percent of the group, and 6.7 percent of the entire 
working force of the Welsh people canvassed. The next 
largest class in this occupation group are the painters and 
decorators of whom there are 29 ; then come the machinists, 
24 in number ; blacksmiths, 11 ; factory women, 10 ; and the 
remainder are scattered among 52 different occupations hav- 
ing less than ten in each. 

The third of the occupation groups is that of Professional 
and Official occupations. In this group there are 101, or 10.5 
percent of the whole working force of the Welsh people can- 
vassed. Of this group, 22 are in the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church and society. The remaining 79 are from the general 
canvass of the city. 47, or almost one-half of this occupation 
group, are teachers and instructors in the city schools, High 
schools, the Ohio State University, or teachers of music. 
About one-fifth of this group are doctors; 16 of whom are 
Physicians; 3 are Doctors of Dental Surgery; and one is a 
Veterinary Surgeon. The remainder of this group are scat- 
tering with less than five in a given profession or office. 

The fourth group, which is not classified, has in it 141 
persons, or 14.6 percent of the whole working force. 76 of 
these are laborers, 36 are domestics, 11 are janitors, 8 are 
saloonkeepers and bartenders, and the remaining 6 are em- 
ployed with some form of personal service. 

From the above classification according to occupation it 
is clear that a large percent of the Welsh are skilled laborers 
and clerks of one form or another, and that one in every ten 
is in some profession or is occupied in some official capacity. 
Relatively few are laborers. 

Business Relations.— The Welsh tend to cling together in 
business. Welsh contractors employ Welshmen as a rule. 
Welsh stone masons go together. The Welsh form partner- 
ships in such businesses as grocery stores, etc. This form of 
association is carried on quite extensively among the Welsh. 
Welsh families favor a Welsh physician as a rule. And they 



94 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

patronize stores and places of business kept by men of their 
own nationality, and even favor stores and business houses 
where Welsh clerks are employed. 

EDUCATION 
The children of the Welsh people of Columbus attend the 
city schools, the grade schools, high schools, and some enter 
the Ohio State University, or some college. Exact statistics 
on this subject for the entire Welsh population of Columbus 
we could not obtain with sufficient accuracy to draw definite 
conclusions. But for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church 
and society they are as given in table XI. 

TABLE XL 

EDUCATION 

Number of persons who have had college education 14 

Number of persons in college at present 6 

Number of persons who have had professional education. 7 

Number of persons of High School education 57 

Number of persons now attending High Schools 25 

Number of persons now in Common Schools 95 

Number of illiterates 3 

Number under five years of age 52 

Number of those not classified here 413 

Total ..672 

Of the 413 not classified in the table above, practically all 
have had a common school education or its equivalent, and a 
large number of them have had a commercial course besides. 

LITERARY AND IMPROVEMENT SOCIETIES 

The old time interest in literary societies and singing 
schools, once so intense among the Welsh of Columbus, is now 
lagging. From 25 to 50 years ago the literary society was a 
great function, and it aroused great interest and a spirit of 
rivalry in competition. It was carried on almost exclusively 
in the Welsh language. Today societies and organizations of 
a distinctly Welsh character are practically extinct in Colum- 
bus. Some cities in America, where the Welsh population is 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 95 

larger than in Columbus and in other cities where the Welsh 
population is much smaller, flourishing Welsh organizations 
are maintained such as the Cymrodorion Society, the Ivorite 
Society, the Saint David's Society,^ etc.; but not one of these 
societies of a distinctly Welsh character are found among the 
Welsh of Columbus today. While there are none of the Welsh 
societies in Columbus almost all of the Welshmen belong to 
one or another of the fraternal societies or labor organizations 
in the city. 

The old time literary society has been supplanted by a 
Ladies' Literary Club, which was organized under the auspices 
of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in 1909. Its object was 
group study in which the young women came together in read- 
ing circles to study some author or some religious course such 
as a Missionary field or country. One meeting in the month 
is of a public nature to which all women are invited. 

The Young Men's Brotherhood was organized in 1908 un- 
der the auspices of the same church. It is broad in its scope, 
its object being "to advance the moral, social, and intellectual 
welfare of its members, ' ' its membership is not confined to the 
church. A Debating Club was also organized about this time 
among young boys of a High School age, its membership being 
elective and confined to twelve in number. Among the middle 
aged men there exists a Class in Theology which meets weekly 
for the discussion of theological questions. The membership 
of this class is also elective and limited to twelve in number. 
The church choir of the Calvinistic Methodist Church amounts 
to a musical society. It is regularly organized with officers 
and directors. The choir consists of about 60 voices, and they 
meet regularly every week for rehearsals. For the past two 
Christmas seasons this choir has given Handel's Messiah with 
credit and distinction.^ 

The two Welsh churches have their respective Ladies ' Aid 
Societies, and from their accumulations every year they con- 



1 A Saint David's Society was organized in Columbus on March 3rd 1913 
when about 250 Welshmen met at a dinner to celebrate Saint David's Day. 

1 The Messiah has now been given for four successive seasons, 1909 to 
1912, -with increasing success. 



96 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

tribute to various benevolences in Columbus, such as the Child- 
ren 's Aid Society, the Associated Charities, City Missions, etc. 
They also have a Missionary Branch through which they con- 
tribute to missions, both Home and Foreign. Among the 
women there is a local branch of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union, known as the "Cambrian W, C. T. U." which 
holds regular monthly meetings. The Welsh of Columbus 
also have an auxiliary to the American Bible Society. This 
was organized in 1853. The first year after its organization 
this auxiliary society contributed over $144.00 to the American 
Bible Society. The Columbus auxiliary society has grown 
and flourished ever since its organization. It has many Life 
Members of the American Bible Society and some Life Di- 
rectors. 

MORALITY AND TEMPERANCE 

Very seldom do we hear of a Welshman being arrested for 
any cause whatever. Only four or five times in the period of 
three years and a half that the writer lived in Columbus was 
the Welsh pride shocked by the announcement that one of 
their nationality had been arrested. The writer has never 
heard of a Welsh child appearing in the Juvenile Court of 
the city, and the report of that court for June 1911 shows that 
there were none during the year preceding. A Welshman 
sentenced to the workhouse is seldom heard of, and a Welsh 
pauper is a rare being. 

On the question of temperance the Welsh society of Colum- 
bus has improved a great deal in the last quarter of a century. 
In the days of the steel rail mill there were many indulgent 
Welshmen in Columbus. Some of them could be classed as 
low and given to very excessive drinking. In this respect the 
Welsh have advanced greatly. Welsh habitual drunkards 
are few in number. The number of those who dring intoxi- 
cants is becoming smaller year by year. The Calvinistie 
Methodist Church for many years has made total abstinence 
a requisite for admission to church membership. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 97 

POLITICS 

In politics the Welsh of Columbus are almost all Republi- 
cans though there are exceptions; a few are Democrats and 
still others are Prohibitionists. Since the rise of the Anti- 
saloon movement many of the Welsh who were Prohibitionists 
have joined its ranks rather than cling to the Prohibition par- 
ty ; that is, those of them who are staunch supporters of tem- 
perance. Party lines are not so closely adhered to by the 
Welsh of today as they were in former days ; and a Welshman 
on a ticket, no matter which party, will command the majority 
of Welsh votes. 

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 

There is scarcely a religious denomination in the city of 
Columbus without at least one Welshman in the roll of its 
members. Twenty-two religious bodies have a total of 1,118 
Welsh people enrolled in them and of this 1,118, 512 are mem- 
bers of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, and 75 are in the 
Welsh Congregational Church. This is not the total member- 
ship of the Welsh Congregational Church. These are children 
in the homes, children whose record was given in question 15 
and its subdivisions on the record-card whose classification is 
not complete and consequently they are not counted here but 
a record of them is given in the "Incomplete Classification" 
group. 1 The children, however, are few in number in the 
Welsh Congregational Church, the most of them are grown 
up children in the homes. This church has but very few 
members under 18 or 20 years of age, and at least one-half of 
its membership are foreign bom Welsh. 

We have as the result of our canvass 606 persons who are 
members of churches other than the Welsh Calvinistic Metho- 
dist Church in Columbus. And these 606, it must be remem- 
bered, are adults regularly classified. Were we able to give 

1 The 75 mentioned here and elsewhere in this work do not represent the 
total membership of the Welsh Congregational Church. 75 is the number of 
adults regularly classified on our record-cards. Where there were sons and 
daughters in the families they have been recorded in the "Incomplete Classi- 
fication" group of which there are 423 children of Welsh parents. The total 
membership of the Welsh Congregational Church is somewhat over 100. DerhauB 
120. ^ ^ 



98 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

the church statistics for the children under 21 years of age 
(as we have done for the Calvinistic Methodist Church) the 
report would show a much larger number of Welsh persons 
in the English churches of Columbus. 

Barring the two Welsh churches for the moment, we have 
531 Welsh people who are members of churches other than 
Welsh in the city. Of this 531 the Methodist Episcopal 
church has the largest number, viz. 181, or 34 percent of all 
the Welsh church members in churches not Welsh in the city, 
and 16.2 percent of the entire number of church members 
among the Welsh people of the city. The next in point of 
numbers is the Presbyterian church with 106 Welsh people, 
or 20 percent of those not members of the Welsh churches, 
and 9.7 percent of the whole number of Welsh church mem- 
bers. The next is the Congregational Church with 14.9 per- 
cent of Welsh outside of Welsh churches, or a little over 7 
percent of the whole number of church members who are 
Welsh. The next in size is the Welsh Congregational Church 
with 75 members regularly classified, which is a little less than 
13 percent of those in Welsh churches, and 6.7 percent of the 
entire church membership here considered. ^ The Baptist 
Church has 41 Welsh people, or 7.7 percent of those not in 
Welsh churches, and 3.6 percent of the whole number of Welsh 
church members. The Church of Christ has 36 Welshmen on 
its roll, or 6.8 percent of those in churches not Welsh in the 
city, and 3.2 percent of the entire church membership of 
Welsh people. The Episcopal Church has 30 Welsh people 
in its roll of membership which is 5.4 of Welsh church mem- 
bers outside of the Welsh churches, or 2.8 percent of the entire 
Welsh church membership here considered. The remaining 
denominations and religious bodies have less than 15 members 
in each as may be seen by consulting table XII. 

i If we had a complete classified list of the members of the Welsh Con- 
gregational Church it would have about 20 percent of all members in Welsh 
churches instead of 13 as here mentioned. American readers may wonder why 
we give a separate account of the Welsh Congregational Church here, i. e. why 
not include it in the column "Congregational" along with all other Congrega- 
tional churches of the city. The reason is that the Welsh Congregational 
Church is a body separate and distinct from the English Congregational church. 
It has its own State Convention or Association just as the Calvinistic Methodist 
(or Welsh Presbyterian) church is a distinct organization from the Presbyterian 
body. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS. , 9flf 

TABLE XH. 

THE NUMBER OF WELSH IN THE VARIOUS 

CHURCHES 

Calvinistic Methodist Church 512 

Methodist Episcopal Church 181 

Presbyterian Church 106 

Congregational Church • 79 

Welsh Congregational Church 75 

Baptist Church • 41 

Church of Christ 36 

Episcopal Church • 30 

United Brethren 14 

United Presbyterian Church 10 

Catholic Church • 8 

Lutheran Church 5 

Seventh Day Adventists 3 

Universalist Church • • 3 

Church of God 3 

Salvation Army • 3 

Latter Day Saints 2 

Christian Science Church. . . • • 2 

Spiritualists • 2 

Church of the Nazarene • . • • 1 

Reformed Church 1 

Young Men 's Christian Association . . . • • 1 

Total— 1,118 of whom 512 are in the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church, and 75 of whom are in the Welsh Congregational 
Church. 

As we have intimated above, if our returns from the gen- 
eral canvass were more complete, a much larger percent of the 
Welsh of Columbus would be in churches other than Welsh 
churches in the city. In our group designated "Incomplete 
Classification," which dealt with question 15 and its subdi- 
visions on the record-card, we have, 806 children from mixed 
marriages, and 423 children of Welsh parents, not considered 
at all in the table on Church Affiliations given above. Were 



100 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

these groups, the total of which is 1,229, classified as to church 
affiliations there would be revealed the fact that several hun- 
dred more Welsh people were in churches other than the Welsh 
churches of Columbus, which have not been recorded at all in 
this writing on church relationship for the reason that our 
statistics gave us no aid on this question. 

Tables XIII., XIV. and XV. in the appendix,* give respect- 
ively, (i) The total number of church members, (ii) The total 
of those not church members but who attend, (iii) The total 
who do not attend church. These are given according to their 
status as foreign or native bom, etc. In these tables the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church and society is omitted, the effort 
here being to learn the religious status of the Welsh outside 
of the Calvinistic Methodist Church in Columbus. These 
tables are made up from the regularly classified records of 
our general canvass. By "church members" here we mean 
persons who are directly indentified with some church or other 
as members. By * * those who are not church members but who 
attend" we mean persons who are not directly indentified with 
any particular church as members, but who attend with more 
or less regularity and who gave the name of the church which 
they attended. By "non-church goers" we mean (i) persons 
who definitely stated that they attended no church whatever ; 
and (ii) those who, when asked about their church attend- 
ance, gave such answers as: "seldom," "everywhere," "all 
churches," "once in a while," or "nowhere in particular," 
in reply, and who in no instance gave the name of the church 
which they attended even "once in a while." The total of 
these three tables is 1,273 and concerning them the following 
facts are revealed : 

The first group, Table XIII., gives the total of church 
members outside of the Calvinistic Methodist Church. This 
group consists of 606 church members, or 47.6 percent of the 
entire 1,273 persons here considered. The second group, 
Table XIV., gives the total of church attendants who are not 



1 See Appendix E. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 101 

members. This group consists of 328 persons, or 25.7 of the 
entire 1,273 in these tables. The third group. Table XV., 
gives the total of non-church-goers and it consists of 339 per- 
sons, or 26.7 percent of the entire number considered in these 
tables.^ 

Reckoned with respect to their grouping as foreign and 
native born in these three tables the percentages are as follows : 

Of the 1,273 persons classified in tables XIII., XIV., and 
XV. collectively 269, or 21.1 percent, are foreign born; 415, 
or 32.6 percent, are native born of foreign parents; 178, or 
14 percent, are persons having one parent foreign and the 
other native ; 411, or 32.3 percent, are native born of native 
parents. 

Percentages according to sex in these groups are as indi- 
cated in table XVI. below. 



1 See Figure 5 page 102. 



102 



THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 



Figure 5 




^S 7 

Figure 5 is a graphic representation of Tables XII., XIII. 
and XIV. in the appendix. The segments are as follows: 

Segment a. The total of church members as per table. 

Segment b. The total of church attendants who are not 
members. 

Segment c. The total of non-ehurch-goers. 



WELSH SOCIAL STATISTICS 103 

TABLE XVI. 

Showing the relative number of males and females among 
the Welsh of Columbus, (not in the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church) grouped according to their status of Foreign and 
Native born, and showing the extent of church affiliations for 
each group according to sex. 

a 

O 9 

> 
a ^'S 

M> Mies <B 



" J3 « *i -> 

*- • O N- 

S «S SOS pH 

XI P «8 X! „ O S 

9' -^ -^ o •- 

I. Percent of Males and Females. I ;s ;S'" iS 

Males 58.7 61 59 61.3 

Females 41.3 39 41 38.7 



100 100 100 100 
II. Grouped According to Chrurch 

Affiliations. 
Percent of Church Members in these 

Groups 55 46 46.4 44.7 

Percent of church attendants, not 

members 24.2 27 23.4 26.5 

Percent of non-church-goers 20.8 27 30.2 28.8 



100 100 100 100 



III. Church Affiliation according to sex 
in these groups. 

Church members— Males 47.9 43.2 44 48.4 

Church members— Females 52.1 56.8 56 51.6 



100 100 100 100 



Church attendants— Males 63 67 69.1 58.7 

Church attendants— Females 37 33 30.9 41.3 



100 100 100 100 



Non-church-goers— Males 82.2 85.6 74 83.9 

Non-church-goers— Females 17.8 14.4 26 16.1 



100 100 100 100 



104 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

The percentages in table XVI., when closely examined, ex- 
plain themselves. We can readily see that there is an excess 
of males as compared with females in each group. We have 
attempted to explain the reason for this in a previous section 
of this chapter.! 

As we get farther away from the foreign bom Welsh group 
the percentage of church memberships decrease. In the col- 
umns on church membership according to sex, the percent 
for females is larger than that for males in each group 
notmthstanding that the males outnumber the females by a 
large majority. Of those who attend church, but who are not 
members, the percent for males in each group is in excess of 
females. Likewise in the group of non-church-goers the per- 
cent for the males is very large while that for females is very 
small. The inevitable conclusion is that Welsh women are 
better church attendants than Welsh men. 

By way of conclusion, we may observe from the facts pre- 
sented in this and the proceeding chapter that the assimilative 
process is rapidly taking place. The Welsh of the city are 
being absorbed by the community and the Welsh traditions 
and " clannishness " are breaking down. While the Welsh 
community life centered about the church at one time almost 
entirely, the church having refused to adjust itself to new con- 
ditions has lost its hold on scores of Welsh in the city. As a 
consequence a large majority of the Welsh group has given 
away and melted into the American population in response to 
manifold outside influences and the lack of sufficiently strong 
common bonds to hold them together. 

1 See page 88. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 
(The Vanishing Welsh) 
Our discussion of the Process of Change may be treated to 
advantage by grouping our ideas under three general topics 
for consideration, as follows: 1. The Welsh conservatism is 
giving way to a broader outlook, due to the influence of en- 
vironment in general and the consequent vanishing of Welsh 
institutions. 2. The linguistic question — a change of langu- 
age. 3. The problem for the church — new conditions. 

WELSH CONSERVATISM IS GIVING WAY 
TO A BROADER OUTLOOK 

The Welsh mind is conservative and, generally speaking, 
unprogressive. It accepts anything new with great reluct- 
ance. But that a great change has taken place in the Welsh 
social mind in recent years, no one can doubt. Extreme Welsh 
conservatism has given way to a broader spirit in almost every 
direction, and on almost every question of public concern and 
of private conduct. In the preceding chapters, we studied 
the early Welsh of Ohio as pioneers settling in their respective 
communities. They preserved their Welsh customs, habits, 
and institutions for a long time without being influenced to 
any marked degree by the American spirit. 

In the ease of the Jackson and Gallia colony, for example, 
we studied a rural community transplanted from its native 
soil on the slopes of the Welsh mountains to the rugged hills 
of Jackson and Gallia Counties in southern Ohio. There the 
South walean from Cardiganshire lived and labored and wor- 
shipped, much the same way as he did in his native land, for 
several decades. There were no public conveniences to disturb 
his peace and custom. There were no steam railways, inter- 



106 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

urban lines, nor even public highways of any account invading 
the settlement. There were no telegraphs, telephones, nor 
rural mail carriers, and even foreign mails were very infre- 
quent for a long time. They had but little contact with the 
outside world and what contact they did have was forced upon 
them by circumstances. They preferred to live alone enjoy- 
ing their own society, customs, and religious exercises, more 
than association with their neighbors of other nationalities. 
No doubt they changed somewhat without outside suggestion 
and influences, but this form of change was for a long time 
very slight and we have no means of measuring the extent of 
it. 

In Columbus, too, we found the Welsh community compact 
and clustered about their church. They were distinguished 
as a group by the names Welshburg and Jonesborough. They 
talked and worshipped in their mother tongue, and they pre- 
ferred their own little group, in a social way, to mixing with 
foreigners in the neighborhoods about them. 

The Welsh people of Columbus today are the descendants 
of the early Welsh families who settled here and the children 
of the early settlers of other Welsh communities in Ohio, par- 
ticularly the Jackson and Gallia settlement. As we study 
present conditions in Columbus we are impressed with the 
great change which has come to the Welsh social mind. It 
has changed tremendously in recent years, and still greater 
changes must come in the next decade or two when those who 
are boys and girls today, and who are thoroughly Americanized 
in habit and spirit, will assume leadership and responsibility 
in the homes, in the social circles, in business relations, and in 
the church. 

There was a time when the introduction of the innocent 
and helpful organ into the church worship met with great re- 
sistance. Parting the hair was looked upon by older people 
at one time as a sign of too much pride. The men combed 
their hair straight down over their foreheads. But the Welsh 
of today are quite as modern in their personal appearance and 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 107 

as dashy in their habits of dress as any other respectable peo- 
ple in the community. To sing love songs and "coon songs" 
used to be regarded as very unbecoming to the young, and 
they were rebuked for it by the elders of the church. Card 
playing, dancing, theatre going, billiard playing, and bowling 
met with wholesale condemnation in former days; and even 
pitching quoits, playing croquet, and other similar amusements 
by way of recreation, were discouraged in past decades. To- 
day they are not endorsed, but are tolerated even by the leaders 
of the church. Some church members have billiard tables in 
their homes, others play cards, and many attend theatres, but 
most of them are particular in their attendance upon theatres ; 
they attend the best. 

The conservatism of the Welsh church on the linguistic 
question has lost many of the young people to the Welsh 
church in the past. But this now is being overcome and the 
Welsh young people remain in their own church. Many of 
those who marry persons of other nationalities, instead of 
leaving the Welsh church for some English speaking church, 
persuade their partners to remain with them in the Welsh 
church. 

REGARD FOR SUNDAYS AND HOLIDAYS 
The Welsh people as a people have a sacred regard for the 
Sabbath. They observe the Lord's Day. But while they 
keep the Sabbath with good and wholesome observance, they 
are far from giving it the strict puritan observance which, 
for example, their forefathers did in the early days in the 
Jackson and Gallia settlement. The strict avoidance of 
whistling on Sunday, and of walking to and from church with 
a member of the opposite sex on the part of young people, or 
of going for a walk on Sunday, is no longer required ; such 
things, which were not tolerated at one time in Welsh circles, 
are today common. 

Some holidays are strictly observed. Chief among these 
is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving Day is held in great es- 
teem by the Welsh of Columbus. The writer has heard a 



108 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

prominent member of the Calvinistic Methodist Church re- 
mark thus: "I regard Thanksgiving Day as just as sacred 
as Sunday. ' ' Scores of others would reiterate that statement. 
In the Calvinistic Methodist Church there are three meetings 
held on Thanksgiving Day, and this is true of almost all other 
Welsh churches. The order of services on Thanksgiving Day 
is as follows : At 10 :00 a. m. a Welsh prayer meeting ; 2 :00 
p. m. a general fellowship meeting ; 7 :30 p. m. a prayer meet- 
ing under the auspices of the young people's societies. The 
service best attended is the afternoon service when all, both 
younger children and older people, attend if the weather is 
favorable. But the morning and evening services are well 
attended also. It is regarded as out of place for a young man 
to attend a foot ball game on Thanksgiving afternoon, even 
though he attended church both morning and evening. 

Other holidays have been given no unusual attention by 
the Welsh. Christmas has not been observed with any very 
special functions until recent years. Of late Christmas exer- 
cises have been held for the children of the Sunday School. 
Easter has had no special observance until very recently, ex- 
cept by way of eating an unusual number of eggs on that day. 
The Welsh Eisteddfod is often held on either Christmas or 
New Year's Day, and a Welsh picnic is held on the Fourth of 
July. 

THE LINGUISTIC QUESTION 

The question of language has had a great influence in 
changing the social thinking of the Welsh of Columbus. One 
of the stanzas of the Welsh National Air breathes the senti- 
ment that "If the enemy has ravished the Land of Wales, the 
Language of Wales is as living as ever." ("Os treisiodd y 
gelyn fy Ngwlad dan ei droed, mae Hen laith y Cymry mor 
fyw ag erioed.") However true that statement may be of 
Wales today, the truth about the Welsh who emigrated to 
America is that they have found a new home in a good land, 
but they are losing their mother tongue, the language of 
Wales. 



THE PROCESS OP CHANGE 109 

Welsh communities in America have made a brave fight to 
preserve the language of their fatherland, which is so dear 
to them. But like every other language spoken by foreigners 
who come to our shores, the Welsh must give way before the 
dominant power of the English. The longevity of the Welsh 
language varies in proportion to the size of the community, 
its geographical position, the proportion of Welsh in the com- 
munity, and the degree of migration from Wales into the com- 
munity. Welsh settlements and Welsh characteristics will, 
in the future, be shorter lived in America than they have been 
in the past. Our reason for this belief is that modern con- 
veniences in America today disturb the exclusiveness and the 
clannish tendencies of any people, or group of people, who 
come to our shores. Steam railways, electric railways, tele- 
graphs, telephones, rural mails and daily papers, and a 
thousand other modern improvemnts and conveniences 
disturb the exclusiveness of any community or clan, and be- 
fore the power of the English language in the commercial 
world of America every other tongue must be silent. 

The average period of persistence of the Welsh language 
in Welsh communities is about three generations or about 80 
years; sometimes more, and frequently less. Concerning the 
Welsh settlements briefly studied in the second chapter, the 
following may be stated regarding the longevity of the Welsh 
language in them. Paddy's Run, settled over a hundred years 
ago passed through its most flourishing period in the '30s and 
'40s. At present there are only four old settlers^ in Paddy's 
Run who can speak the Welsh language. In the Welsh Hills 
in Licking County, there are less than a dozen people who can 
speak Welsh. In the towns of Granville and Newark, several 
Welsh speaking people may be found. In the Jackson and 
Gallia settlement,^ the strongest and best organized Welsh 
settlement in America in her balmy days, and the best fortified 
by natural environment against extraneous influences, the 
Welsh language is rapidly vanishing and is being supplanted 

i Two of these are over 90 years old. 

2 First 18 »ettlers came there in 1818, but the real growth of the settle- 
ment began in 1834. 



no THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

by English even in the church services. About one-third of 
the preaching done in the settlement is in English, perhaps 
more. About two-thirds of the Sunday School classes in the 
churches are conducted in the English language. Gomer in 
Allen County, settled in 1838, is rapidly changing its com- 
plexion linguistically. Half of the preaching services are in 
English and more than half of the Sunday School classes are 
carried on in that tongue. Venedocia in Vanwert County, 
settled in 1848, is gradually coming to recognize the need of 
English in the church. Venedocia is the latest of the large 
settlements, here considered, to be established and therefore 
the last to show signs of the decline of the Welsh language. 
Strictly speaking, the signs were evident long ago, but they 
were not discerned by the leaders in the Welsh church. A 
Presbyterian Church was organized in Venedocia some 12 
years ago by the Lima Presbytery and its services are con- 
ducted in English. The Welsh people in Venedocia should 
have organized that church under the auspices of the Calvin- 
istic Methodist denomination. They failed to do this. The 
result is that he Welsh Church of Venedocia in the past 10 
or 12 years has gradually decreased, while the Presbyterian 
Church, which consists very largely of younger Welsh Ameri- 
cans, has grown during the same period from a small mission 
church to a church with a membership of about 120. The 
Sugar Creek Church in Putnam County became extinct as a 
Welsh church, and for a number of years no service was held 
there. In recent years this church has been reorganized by 
the Calvinistic Methodists as an English church, and the work 
there is now growing. The Radnor settlement, in Delaware 
County, once a flourishing Welsh community is now entirely 
English in society and church. But the inhabitants of the 
commiuiity are almost all people of Welsh blood, being the 
descendants of the early Welsh settlers who came to Radnor a 
hundred years ago. 

With this brief resume of the linguistic conditions of the 
older Welsh settlements of Ohio, which supply Columbus with 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 111 

much of its Welsh population today, let us now give attention 
to the linguistic condition among the Welsh of Columbus. 

First, the linguistic condition in the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church. The Welsh church is the great conserver of Welsh 
forces, linguistic and otherwise. The Welsh church is the last 
place to give up the Welsh language. When every other 
branch of social activity and every social circle, including the 
home, has ceased to use the Welsh language the Church de- 
mands it in public worship, even though every sign points to 
the need of a change. The main reason for this condition is 
that the older people cling to their mother tongue from senti- 
ment, and the older people control in church affairs. They 
cling to the Welsh not that they do not understand the Eng- 
lish, but because they prefer the Welsh. The older people do 
understand English, but scores of their children do not un- 
derstand Welsh. The Welsh language is losing, and it must 
lose more and more in Columbus, as in other communities, as 
the process of Americanization of the children in Welsh homes 
is increasing, and as the practical cessation of immigration 
from Wales continues. 

In the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Columbus there 
are 51 infants of five years and under. Of these 51 infants, 
6 are able to speak Welsh. They speak the language well for 
children five years of age. In the next age group, children 
from 6 to 10 years of age, there are 50, and 4 of these may be 
said to speak Welsh fairly well. In the next age group, 11 
to 15, there are 52, and 3 of these can speak Welsh. In the 
next age group, youths 16 to 20 years of age, there are 59, and 
13 of these are able to speak the Welsh language. Of adults 
over 21 years of age in the church, there are 39 persons of 
pure Welsh blood who cannot speak Welsh, besides the mem- 
bers who are not of Welsh blood and who cannot understand 
the language. 

We have this interesting linguistic condition among the 
children of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, viz. there are 
more children, and a larger percent of the children, of five 



112 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

years old and nnder who can speak the Welsh language than 
there are in the next two age groups, viz. those between the 
ages of six and ten, and eleven and fifteen, respectively. The 
reason for this is that some Welsh parents are faithful to 
teach Welsh to their young children in the home, but as soon 
as they go to the public schools and begin to associate with 
other children, they pick up English and in a short time they 
refuse to express themselves in Welsh even at home, and not 
long thereafter they cannot talk Welsh at all. 

There are 212 children under 21 years of age in the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church and society and only 26, or 12.7 
percent, of them are able to intelligently use the Welsh langu- 
age. It may here be urged that almost one-fourth of this 212 
are infants under five years of age, many of whom are unable 
to speak any language as yet. That is true, but the fact still 
remains that a larger percent of this age-group can speak 
Welsh than of the next two age-groups respectively; all of 
which means that when these children, now under five years 
of age, come to the age-groups of 6 to 10 and 11 to 15 respect- 
ively, a smaller percent of them will be able to speak the Welsh 
language than at present. 

The percentages in the age-groups run as follows : Of the 
total under 21 years of age, 12.7 percent speak Welsh. Age- 
group under five years of age, 11.7 percent speak Welsh; in 
the age-group 11 to 15 years, 5.8 percent speak Welsh; in the 
age-group 16 to 20 years, 22 percent are able to speak Welsh. 
Of those over 21 years of age, there are 39 persons of pure 
Welsh blood, or 8.5 percent of those over 21 years old, who 
cannot speak the Welsh language. The group of 212 children 
and youths under 21 years old, 87.3 percent of whom cannot 
speak Welsh, are, for the most part, children of Welsh parents 
who have come to Columbus from the Jackson and Gallia 
settlement in the past 25 years. There are but very few of 
the descendants of the old original Welsh families of Colum- 
bus in the Calvinistic Methodist Church at present. Most of 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 113 

these have left the Welsh church and are identified with Eng- 
lish churches in the city. 

When we come to study the linguistic situation among the 
Welsh of Columbus outside the Welsh Calvinistic Church and 
society, conditions are still more striking, as may well be ex- 
pected, even though the members of the Welsh Congregational 
Church are reckoned in this group. 

Of the entire 1,273 persons regularly classified in the Gen- 
eral Canvass of the Welsh people of the city 359, or 28.2 per- 
cent, speak the Welsh language. ^ And these are distributed 
as to classification of foreign and native born as follows: 
There are 269 foreign born Welsh, and of. this total 161, or a 
little less than 60 percent, speak Welsh. The total number 
of native born of foreign parents is 415 ; of this number 130, 
or 31.3 percent, speak Welsh. The total number of native 
born having one of the parents foreign and the other native, 
is 178; of these 23, or a trifle less than 13 percent, speak 
Welsh. The total number of native born of native parents is 
411 ; 45 of these, or 10.9 percent, speak the Welsh language. 

It is evident from the above percentages that as we get 
farther away from the foreign born Welsh the knowledge of 
the Welsh language decreases. This is to be expected, but 
the percentage of each group is interesting nevertheless, if not 
surprising. As Americanization takes place the knowledge of 
Welsh diminishes. The groups, beginning with the foreign 
born Welsh, show the percents to diminish as follows: (i) 
59.8 percent; (ii) 31.3 percent; (iii) 12.9 percent; (iv) 10.9 
percent, respectively.^ 

With such a condition present, and with practically no 
direct immigration from Wales, and with rapid linguistic 
changes going on in the communities which have served as 
"feeders" for Columbus in the last 25 years, and which still 
continue to supply Columbus with Welsh people, it is safe to 
predict that the time is not far distant when the Welsh lan- 
guage will be extinct in Columbus, or at least dropped from use 

1 See Figure 6 on page 114. 

2 See Figure 7 on page 115. 



lU 



THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 



Figure 6 




□ 



I. 8.2. 
7 I. 3 



Figure 6 is a graphic representation of linguistic condi- 
tion stated on page 113. The segments are as follows: 

Segment a. Total of those who cannot speak the Welsh 
language. 

Segment b. Total of those who can speak Welsh. 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 

Figure 7 



115 




im 






en 



01 :> 




Figure 7, in four parts, is a graphic representation of the 
linguistic conditions as analyzed on page 113. 
The circles are as follows : 

1. Linguistic condition among the foreign born Welsh. 

2. Linguistic condition among the native born of foreign 
parents. 

3. Linguistic condition among the native born having one 
foreign and one native parent. 

4. Linguistic condition among the native bom of native 
parents. 

The segments in each circle are as follows; 
Segment a. Total who cannot speak Welsh. 
Segment b. Total who speak Welsh. 



116 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

eveu in the Welsh church. Were we able to give linguistic 
conditions regarding the 423 children of Welsh parents, and 
the 806 children of mixed marriages, one of whose parents 
was Welsh, the statistics on the vanishing of the Welsh 
language would be even more striking than the above figures 
show. 

CHARACTERISTIC WELSH INSTITUTIONS WANING 
There are Welsh organizations and societies in many com- 
munities wliere the Welsh are organized as a people. Colum- 
bus today has none of these. Such organizations as the 
Cymrodorion Society, the Ivorite Society, Saint David's Soci- 
ety, etc. are found in many Welsh communities, especially in 
the cities. Some cities much larger than Columbus have them, 
such as New York, Philadelphia, etc., and some cities much 
smaller than Columbus, and which have a much smaller Welsh 
population than Columbus, also have them. But no such or- 
ganizations exist in Columbus. Even the Cambrian Musical 
Club, consisting of about 40 male voices, which was organized 
about six years ago, was abandoned in 1910. The Eisteddfod 
which is a characteristic Welsh institution is held occasionally, 
but this has no permanent elements. It is formed from an 
impulse on the part of a few persons and a temporary organi- 
zation is formed to carry out the Eisteddfod plans for the 
season. After the Eisteddfod takes place the organization 
dissolves, as a rule. 

The reason for the absence of characteristic Welsh institu- 
tions among the Welsh of Columbus is difficult to state. The 
language does not play a very important part here. For, in 
many cities, flourishing Welsh societies are maintained where 
the Welsh speaking population is small. The only character- 
istic Welsh institutions in Columbus are those under the 
auspices of the Welsh church. Perhaps the great Welsh or- 
ganizations are formed, in cities where they exist, after the 
Welsh church has proven insufficient to the task of holding 
together the great mass of influential Welsh people in the city. 
At any rate, the condition in Columbus at present is that of 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 117 

a strong Welsh church with no other Welsh societies besides 
those maintained under the auspices of the church. ^ Another 
reason which may be assigned for the absence of these Welsh 
institutions is that the Welsh of Columbus are absorbed with 
other societies and organizations in a social way. The men 
belong to various fraternal societies and labor organizations 
in the city, which occupy their time and attention; and the 
women have joined clubs for women in the city. Granted that 
this be one of the causes for the absence of Welsh institutions, 
we again see the change which has come into the Welsh society 
through association with other peoples in a mixed community. 
Welsh ideals and institutions are vanishing, and the Welsh of 
Columbus are identifying themselves with institutions which 
are common to Americans. The old societies once cherished 
by the Welsh are giving way to American institutions. 

Revivals among the Welsh. — Revivals are not peculiar to 
the Welsh people, but a Welsh religious revival is unique. 
The revivals of Wales are such as possess the whole nation. 



1 The organization of the St. David's Society in Columbus in March 1913 
may suggest the fact that the Welsh church in Columbus is now approaching 
the point where it is not equal to the task of holding together the many in- 
fluential Welsh of the city. Be that as it may. The Welsh of Columbus are 
now agitating the organization of a "Welsh Social Center." Such an organi- 
zation may doubtless have its advantages to the Welsh of the city at large, but 
it will be "a disadvantage to the Welsh church. About four years ago, (1909), 
the Welsh C. M. Church considered erecting a new church edifice which would 
accommodate social aspects of work, commonly known as "the institutional 
church" work, making provision for .social rooms and reading rooms for the 
scores of young Welsh men and women who are in the city, many of whom 
have come from country homes and are living in rooming houses in Columbus. 
The measure failed to carry four years ago. Now the question of a new church 
has been revived, and likewise the question of a social gathering place, but 
now it comes up as a double-header, viz. a new church and a Welsh social 
center, as two separate institutions The church, in December 1913, decided to 
erect a new edifice, and the Welsh of the city are planning a ' 'Welsh social 
center." (See Preliminary Program of Columbus Eisteddfod announcement for 
January 1, 1913.) 

A "social center," as such, could not well be carried on under the auspices 
of a church, for it wants to be free from sectarianism and racial lines. It is 
the same to Jew and Gentile, the same to Cotholic and Protestant. It must be 
in a public place — at the public school building where "all paths meet." But 
when the Welsh social center is considered, the ordinary objections to its being 
associated with the church do not hold. 

The Welsh have always regarded the church as their rallying place. The 
church has always been the Welshman's social center. The result of a "Welsh 
social center" apart from the church in Columbus will be detrimental to the 
Welsh church, especially with its present insistance on more Welsh speaking in 
the church than the conditions warrant. The result will be that the young 
will go to the social center for their Welsh social life, where they can mingle 
with their own nationality, for the Welsh are clannish, and they will go to an 
English church for their religious exercises. So between the Welsh social 
center and the lack of sufficient English in the Welsh church the Welsh church 
will more and more lose its control over the Welsh population of the city. 



118 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

During a Welsh revival, the whole nation is stirred by a re- 
ligious awakening and upheaval. The Welsh communities in 
America have experienced such religious awakenings in 
pioneer days. Such a revival started in America in 1858. It 
swept through Welsh communities in the United States and 
the fire of the revival crossed the Atlantic in the person of its 
leader,^ and it stirred all Wales. 

A similar revival shook Wales in 1904-1905 when the whole 
nation was ablaze with the heat of it. The revival was led by 
a young man 26 years of age, and it resulted in over 80,000 
conversions. Such a revival may visit Wales again, but it is 
very unlikely that the Welsh in America will ever experience 
a revival similar to that of 1859, and such as swept over Wales 
in 1904 and 1905. In 1905-06, an effort towards a revival of 
the Welsh type was made in many Welsh communities in 
America. In some instances the people were somewhat 
awakened but nothing of an unusual nature resulted from the 
effort. Some of the revival singers came from Wales to 
America. Two young men visited Columbus; good meetings 
were held, but nothing of any consequence was known to fol- 
low their work. 

Our reasons for believing that the Welsh in America may 
never again experience the old-time Welsh revivals are: (i) 
The Welshman has lived in America too long and he has be- 
come Americanized, and has lost through association and as- 
similiation a great deal of his highly emotional qualities and 
his vividness of imagination, (ii) He is far removed from 
the superstitions which once possessed the people in the 
Fatherland, and he is educated to the extent that he has over- 
come much of the superstitious in him; and this has affected 
his temperament.2 (iii) The waning of the Welsh language 
will also have its effects upon the revival spirit among the 
Welsh in this country, (iv) The manner of Welsh preach- 
ing has changed. Welsh preaching is not so highly exciting? 

1 See Diwvgiadau Crefyddol Cymru, p. 404. 

2 Let the reader not assume or conclude that the writer regards super- 
stition and revival as identical for he does not, but that a superstitious nature 
is an easy target for certain forms of revival appeals is beyond question. 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 119 

as it once was, and the Welsh clergy indulge less in realisms 
in their discourses. This form of preaching in the past has 
had a great deal of influence upon the highly imaginative 
Welshman, or Celt. For these reasons we believe that the old- 
time Welsh revivals are not likely to visit the Welsh in Ameri- 
ca in the future, 

THE PROBLEM FOR THE CHURCH— NEW 
CONDITIONS 

The Problem for the Welsh Church in America is closely 
linked with the Linguistic Question. Conditions being as they 
are, the problem for the church cannot be fairly discussed 
apart from the question of the Welsh language, — and the 
Welsh language, as we have pointed out, is a vanishing quan- 
tity.i The Welsh people, generally speaking, are regarded as 
religious and very devoted to the church. To what extent 
this reputation for religion given the Welsh is due to their 
natural make-up. and how much of it is traditional, is difficult 
to state. If the Welshman is religiously inclined by constitu- 
tion, apart from tradition, language, and customs, we would 
expect to find the full blood Welshman just as religious aftei 
he has forgotten the Welsh language as he was before. 

The Calvinistic Methodist denomination, which is by far 
the best organized and strongest Welsh church in America 
today, has never conceived of giving the gospel to any com- 
munity in America, except to communities where there are 
Welsh-speaking people. The writer knows of not a single 
church organized, nor a mission maintained, by the Calvinistic 
Methodist Church in the United States, except where there 
are Welsh speaking Welshmen. In a few instances, in recent 
years, churches which had gone down as Welsh churches havi 
been resurrected by the denomination as churches in which 
the English language is to be used for worship. The Sugar 

1 See "Y Cyfaill" for November 1911, the address of the late Rev. 
Daniel Thomas M. A., as resigning Moderator of the General Assembly of the 
Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church in the United States, at Cotter, Iowa, 
August 1911. In this address, or sermon, Mr. Thomas declares that the C. M. 
denomination is now passing through a crisis. Two important considerations 
he presents, viz. (i) The denomination in relation to language in its churches, 
(ii) in rel.Ttion to its future existence. He declares that three-fourths of 
those who leave the church do so for linguistic reasons. 



120 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

Creek Church in Putnam county is one such church. But in 
no instance, known to the writer, has a church been organized 
or a mission maintained in any community which was not 
Welsh. It is thus fair to conclude that the Calvinistic Metho- 
dist Church in the United States conceives its fimction to be 
to serve people of the Welsh nationality only. That is to say, 
it is a church for Welshmen in the United States. 

If this conclusion, drawn from observation of what seems 
to be the policy of the denomination — -or at least its practice — 
is correct, the next question forced upon us for consideration 
is: Does the Welsh church in America meet the religious 
needs of the Welsh community ? In order to ausw'er this ques- 
tion we must ask ourselves. What is a Welshman? Are they 
Welsh who are born in Wales and who can speak the Welsh 
language? The answer assuredly is "Yes." 

Are they Welsh who are bom in Wales and of Welsh par- 
ents, but who cannot speak the Welsh language? Are the 
native born of foreign Welsh parents, and who can speak the 
Welsh language, to be regarded as Welsh? Are the native 
born of foreign Welsh parents, and who cannot speak the 
Welsh language, to be regarded as Welsh? Are native born 
children of native born parents who can speak the Welsh 
language to be considered as Welsh ? Are native born childr- 
ren of native born parents of pure Welsh blood who cannot 
speak the Welsh language to be regarded as Welsh? Our 
question is. What constitutes a Welshman? Is he a Welsh- 
man, who is born in America and whose parents are American 
born, when neither he nor his parents can speak the Welsh 
language, but in whose veins every drop of blood comes from 
a pure Welsh ancestry? If the Welsh church in America con- 
siders its functions to be to serve only the Welsh speaking of 
the Welsh people in the United States, it fails to meet the re- 
ligious needs of the large majority of the Welsh nationality 
in America. Then what of the child of the mixed marriage, 
one of whose parents is Welsh? Who is responsible for his 
religious instruction and training? If the Welsh church seeks 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 121 

only to minister to those Welshmen who speak the Welsh 
language, it falls far short of providing for its own nationality 
in this country. It serves only that portion of the Welsh 
people who can receive religious instruction through the medi- 
um of the Welsh language. 

With these questions in mind, let us turn our attention to 
the statistics on the Welsh of Columbus, and study existing 
conditions with respect to church affiliations among them. 

Table XII., on church affiliations, shows a total of 1,118 
church members.^ Of this total 512 are in the Calvinistic 
Methodist Church. The remaining 606 are from the General 
Canvass in the city at large. The 512 members of the Calvin- 
istic j\Iethodist Church, here counted, include the children of 
that church over 12 years of age who have been admitted into 
full church membership. The remaining 606 are only the 
adults regularly classified in the general canvass. Were the 
423 children of Welsh parents and the 806 children of mixed 
parents (not classified as to church affiliation) added here the 
number of Welsh and half -Welsh in churches other than Welsh 
churches in Columbus would be much larger. But our con- 
clusions must be drawn from materials at our disposal. 
Among the Welsh of Columbus besides those in the two Welsh 
churches, as the table shows, there are Welsh people distributed 
among tAventy other religious bodies, and one man insisted 
that Socialism was his religion. 

From the array of church membership in table XII., we 
can see how scattered are the Welsh of Columbus regarding 
their religious tendencies and church affiliations. The Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church has more Welsh members than any 
other denomination in the city, barring the Calvinistic Metho- 
dist Church. It has 181 Welsh people in its ranks in the city. 
There may be several reasons assigned for this: (i) A few 
may have been Welsh Wesleyans, and therefore naturally went 
to the :Methodist Episcopal Church, (ii) The spirit of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church appeals to the Welsh tempera- 
ment. The Methodist Episcopal Church is often called the 



1 See Table page 



122 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

church of the people, i, e. of the masses ; that fact would appeal 
to a large number of Welsh people, (iii) The Methodist 
"class-meeting" comes closer to the Calvinistic "fellowship 
meeting" than any other church institution in any other de- 
nomination known to the writer, (iv) The Calvinistic 
Methodists, when speaking of their church, call it ' * Methodist ' ' 
for brevity, just as the Methodist Episcopalians call their 
church "Methodist" for the same reason. This coincidence 
of names has attracted many a Calvinistic Methodist to the 
Methodist Episcopal church. A Calvinistic Methodist, on 
leaving his old home church and going to a town where there 
were different denominations, if he identified himself with 
any English church, frequently united with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church instead of going to a Presbyterian Church 
which would have been practically equivalent to his own Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church, except for the language. The wri- 
ter's attention was called to this fact by one who had been a 
resident of Jackson County from childhood imtil recent 
years. He stated that scores, who had gone from that Welsh 
settlement, entered the Methodist Episcopal Church in just 
that way, being misled by the name * ' Methodist. ' ' It was only 
a few weeks after this conversation with the friend from Jack- 
son that the writer found an illustration of this very thing. 
A man. who had been a member all his life, up to that time, 
in a Calvinistic Methodist Church, had moved to town and had 
identified himself with the IMethodist Episcopal Church. 
When asked by the writer why he did not go to the Presby- 
terian Church, his immediate and direct reply, and that almost 
in the spirit of a retort, was, "Why should a Methodist go to 
a Presbyterian Church ? ' ' The percent of Welsh in the other 
churches in the city may be seen by consulting the table. 

The important question for the Welsh church in America 
with its heretofore strict allegiance to the Welsh language is 
the problem of the unchurched Welsh in our cities, and the 
abandoned Welsh churches in our rural communities. Of the 
1,273 persons regularly classified in our general canvass of the 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 123 

eity, only 606, or 47.4 percent, were church members. Of the 
remaining 52.6 percent, who were not church members, 25.7 
percent attended church; and 26.7 percent were non-church- 
goers. When more than one-half of the 1,273 adults here 
considered are non-church members and over one-fourth never 
attend church, it presents a serious aspect of religious condi- 
tion among a people generally known as good church people. ^ 
When we remember that the Welsh church has made no effort 
toward missionary work outside of its own nationality, and it 
never could until very recent years because of linguistic limi- 
tations which it placed upon its work; and when we realize 
that out of the above 1,273 regularly classified persons only 
27.4 percent speak the Welsh language and that a very large 
percent of that number are foreign born Welsh, a portion 
which is becoming smaller year by year because of little or no 
immigration from Wales ; and when we remember that 411 of 
the above 1,273. (or about one-third of the whole number) are 
native born of native parents, and of this only 10.9 percent 
are able to speak the Welsh language; add to this again the 
fact that out of 212 persons under 21 years of age in the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church only 12.7 percent are able intelli- 
gently to handle the Welsh language, may we not fairly con- 
clude that the Calvinistic ^lethodist Church has not in the past 
served the Welsh people, but only a portion of the people of 
Welsh blood, viz. those who understood the Welsh language? 
If the Welsh churches of Columbus were composed of a 
large membership which did not undei-stand the English 
language clinging to the Welsh would be commendable, pro- 
vided a strong effort were put forth at the same time to serve 
the Welsh population which does not understand the Welsh 
language ; over one-half of whom are not members in any 
church and one-fourth of them never attend church. But the 
number of Welsh people in the Calvinistic Methodist Church 
who do not understand English is very small, if there are any. 
There is not a single person in the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church who cannot carry on a conversation in Eng- 

1 See" Appendix E. and Figure 5, page 102. 



124 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

lish. There are over 250 members who cannot carry on a 
conversation in Welsh. The older people tell us that they 
cannot understand English sermons, but when Chapman and 
Alexander^ come to the city, or any other far-famed persons; 
these people attend the entire series of discourses and they are 
able to report intelligently on what they have heard. The 
Welshman 's sentiment regarding language rims away with his 
better judgment and what should be his regard for the highest 
welfare of the growing generation of Welsh in America. The 
writer believes that the time is ripe when the Welsh church 
in America should give less attention to the Welsh language, 
as the vehicle for conveying instruction, and that it should 
apply itself more diligently to the dissemination of truth 
through the medium of a language which practically all the 
Welsh people now possess, and thus endeavor to serve all the 
people in the commimity. 

The Church and its Ministry. — The Calvinistic Methodist 
Church is rapidly approaching a crisis with respect to minis- 
terial supply for its pulpits. Almost all of the Welsh com- 
munities in America are in a transitional stage, but only a few 
of them thus far have recognized that fact, and consequently 
the church has suffered, or, speaking from a standpoint of the 
community, the church has failed to meet the religious need 
of the community. One Ohioan who has been an officer in the 
Calvinistic Methodist Church for over 40 years in one of our 
large cities, and who is American born, said to the writer in a 
conversation on this question : ' ' Our fathers who laid the 
foundation of our denomination in this country never dreamed 
of the present condition of things. They believed that our 
church would always remain Welsh." The statement is 
doubtless very true. The fathers of the Calvinistic Methodist 
Church perhaps did not dream of changing linguistic condi- 
tions. But they did meet the need of the community in their 
day. Theirs was a day of planning and providing for the im- 
migrant from Wales. He was thoroughly Welsh and they did 
well in providing for him. And whatever their opinion as to 

1 Evangelists. 



THE PBOCESS OF CHANGE 125 

the permanence of the Welsh language may have been, we 
know that it is vanishing and the problem for the Welsh 
church today is to provide for a Welsh population which does 
not know the Welsh language. Does the Welsh church meet 
this emergency ? 

One of the difficulties in the way of meeting the need of 
the community is the question of ministerial supply for the 
pulpits and the right type of pastors for the parishes. We do 
not here raise the question of the character and ability of the 
clergy from Wales. They are men of most excellent charac- 
ter and, a large majority of them, are men of ability. But the 
training and early environment of the Welsh ministers in im- 
portant Welsh churches have not been the sort which fit them 
for the most successful work in many Welsh communities to- 
day. The church in the past has been supplied very largely 
by ministers from Wales, great men and able preachers many 
of them. And for the early generations of Welsh in America, 
they were fully able to cope with conditions in the Welsh 
parish and community. There was perfect sympathy between 
pastor and people. The condition was that of a foreigner 
serving foreigners in a foreigner's way. The spirit and cus- 
tom of the parishoners were not American, and the preacher 
from Wales served acceptably and well. 

During the last decade or two, the minister from Wales 
has not been the success in Welsh communities in America 
that his predecessors were. The reason for this is the change 
that has come into the Welsh community. The pastor, whose 
early years have been spent in Wales, and whose training and 
entire education have been received in Welsh schools and col- 
leges, and whose ideals are the ideals of the "Welshman in 
Wales, ' ' does not meet the requirements of a Welsh parish in 
America. A man with such a training, excellent as it may 
be for the clergy in Wales, lacks sympathy for the American 
ideals with which his parishioners are imbued, and is too firmly 
rooted in his own type of thinking ever fully to adapt himself 
to conditions in this country where the environment is thor- 



126 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

oughly American. We have striking examples of able minis- 
ters from Wales who have not been a success in Welsh parishes 
in America for these reasons, even though some of them were 
abundantly able to preach in the English language. 

The chief reasons for the lack of success of the Welsh 
minister from Wales, in Welsh communities in America, may 
be fairly summed up as follows: (i) The form of ministry 
in Wales, where the pastor preaches in his own church only 
one Sunday in the month, unfits a man for a permanent 
pastorate in America w^here the minister occupies his own pul- 
pit twice every Sunday throughout the year, (ii) The lack 
of sympathy for American ideals and institutions with which 
his parishioners are imbued, especially the young of the parish, 
with the result that he does not get a hold on his people as he 
otherwise would, (iii) The insistence of the Welsh pastor 
from Wales upon the use of the Welsh language in the church 
services, and his continual emphasis on the importance of the 
Welsh, instead of an acceptance of the language known to the 
people of his charge as a medium for conveying religious in- 
struction. The strongest Avitnesses possible to this fact, and 
the only witnesses necessary, are the many Welsh churches 
closed and abandoned in communities where children of the 
early Welsh settlers still live, but who do not understand the 
Welsh language. The older Welsh pastors and elders in the 
church insisted on having Welsh as the language of the church 
until the church went down. The churches are down, but the 
descendants of the early Welsh families are still in the com- 
munity; some going to English churches of other denomina- 
tions, while others belong to the army of the non-church-going 
Welsh. 

There is a second class of Welsh ministers which has been 
a compromise in this transitional stage in the recent past. 
Namely, young men from Wales who have come to the United 
States in their 'teens and twenties and have entered our col- 
leges and theological seminaries in certain of the States, par- 
ticularly Wisconsin, in which the synod of the Calvinistic 



THE PK0CES8 OF CHANGE 127 

Methodist denoiuiDation lias a fund for the educating of can- 
didates for the ministry. From such a source has come many 
good men, and well (jualified. to the Welsh pulpit during the 
past twenty or twenty-five years. They are Welsh by birth 
and training up to the High School or College age, and their 
education for the ministry has been received in America. But 
even Avith these men as leaders the Welsh note prevails, and 
their tendency has l>eon to insist upon things Welsh, especially 
the Welsh language, rather than to accept conditions as they 
are and to put their strength and effort upon the moral and 
leligious development of society as they find it in America. 
While those men have met an emergency in the past decade or 
two, their tendency has been reactionary, — "back to the 
Welsh." — and this in the future will lose rather than gain for 
the Welsh church. 

There is a third class of ministers to be considered in this 
connection, viz. the American born Welsh preacher. This 
class, from the point of view of sympathy with American 
spirit, customs and ideals, and the complete understanding of 
the American environment which surrounds our people in a 
given community, is well equipped for the task. These men 
are of Welsh stock. They have been raised in Welsh homes 
v.'ith a certain knowledge of AYelsh institutions and customs 
and habits of mind; and they are possessed of a good 
knowledge of present day conditions which surround their 
people. But for the Welsh church most of them are entirely 
inadequate because, even though they are of pure Welsh blood, 
they do not know the Welsh language sufficiently to use it in 
]uiblic service in the Welsh pulpit, where at least one sermon 
on Sunday in the Welsh language is required. The result is 
that a great majority of young Welshmen who are candidates 
for the ministry from the Calviuistic Methodist Church enter 
the ministry in an English speaking church. 

The crisis which the Calviuistic Methodist Church is ap- 

The Welsh Press abounds with articles opposing the introduction of English 
into various church services. In the columns of the "Drych" articles appear 
insisting upon more Welsh in the Welsh churches. The writer has many clip- 
pings on the subject. 



128 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

preaching is this: unless conditions indicated by the signs of 
the times in the church are anticipated, the church will find 
itself, in the not distant future, a church without an efficient 
ministry such as it now possesses. For, in the first place, if 
our reasoning is correct, the clergy from Wales will not meet 
the requirements of conditions in the Welsh communities in 
America. Secondly, if the older ministers and elders, who 
control in the councils of the church, continue to insist on the 
maintainance of the Welsh language in the churches of the 
denomination, the denomination will be unable to retain its 
candidates for the ministry in the Welsh church. The young 
men who are studying for the ministry in the Welsh church 
are also studying conditions and are aware of social forces 
operating in Welsh communities in this country. They are 
aware of linguistic limitations in the Welsh parish. They 
have not the same passion for the Welsh language as their 
predecessors had, and they will seek opportunities to serve the 
church, regardless of language and nationality, as Americans. 
They are not likely to cling to the Welsh language at the ex- 
pense of rendering greater services in an American pulpit. 

The Welsh church in America has no schools, colleges or 
theological seminaries. For all their learning, outside of the 
Sunday School, they must depend on American institutions,^ 
This is not true of other foreign peoples in America today. 
The Germans, for instance, have their schools and colleges and 
theological institutions, which, with a large immigration, will 
keep up the German language for decades to come.^ The 
Welsh have none of these and immigration to the older settle- 
ments has practically ceased. This means that in the absence 
of distinct Welsh institutions Americanization will increase 
among the Welsh more rapidly as time goes on. And the time 



1 Even Welsh literature in America today is confined practically to two 
periodicals, viz. the "Drych" a national weekly for the Welsh in America, and 
the "Cyfaill," a monthly magazine, the official organ of the Calvinistic Metho- 
dist denomination in this country. Many Welsh papers and magazines have 
been started from time to time, but have been discontinued. See Appendix G. 

2 See the "Cyfaill" for January 1910, article by Rev. John R. Johns, D. D. 
Dr. Johns read this article before the Welsh Synod of Wisconsin when he 
was pastor of the Welsh O. M. church at Randolph, Wis., he is now pastor of 
the C. M. Church of Columbus, Ohio. 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 129 

is not far distant when complete assimilation into the great 
American people will have taken place. 

The Calvinistic Methodist Clnirch in Columbus during the 
past decade has undergone rapid and significant change. The 
pastors of the Columbus church up to 1899 were not able to 
preach in English, and were opposed to anything which 
savored of English in the church. During the '90s the de- 
mand for English was felt to increase, but the allegiance to 
the Welsh, on the other hand, was very strong on the part of 
those in authorit3\ When the Christian Endeavor Society 
was organized it was discouraged by some of the elders, and 
was regarded almost as a dangerous thing. This position was 
taken for two reasons. First, the young people in the church 
had never taken an active part in church services before, ex- 
cept for the repeating of verses in the fellowship meeting, 
and to see the young active in church services appeared to 
some of the austere elders as "playing with religion." The 
second reason for the opposition is that English was spoken in 
the meetings by some who took an active part. So the 
Christian Endeavor met with no encouragement for some time, 
but it thrived nevertheless. 

Beginning with the 20th Century things began to change. 
One sermon a month was preached in English on Sunday 
evening. English classes in Sunday School began to multiply. 
For a time the linguistic struggle waged in Sunday School. 
Teachers insisted on teaching Welsh to their pupils during 
the Sunday School hour, and Welsh children left Sunday 
School because their teachers insisted on their learning Welsh 
when they knew nothing of Welsh on the street, in the public 
school, nor even in the home. But the strong Welsh prejudice 
was overcome in the Simday School as time went on, and to- 
day about 28, or perhaps more, classes out of 36 are conducted 
in English. By the latter part of 1907, English sermons were 
introduced into the Sunday evening service regularly every 
Sunday. The Christian Endeavor Society is now carried on 
entirely in English. In the Junior Endeavor Society not a 



130 THE WELSH OF C0LUMBU8, OHIO 

word of Welsh is spoken. The Brotherhood Society meetings 
are all English and the Ladies' Literary Club as well. The 
large majority of those who take part in the fellowship meet- 
ing do so in English. The mid-week prayer service is about 
half English and half Welsh. The trustees carry on their 
discussions in English, and the records are kept in the English 
language. The session has mixed records, both Welsh and 
English. The meetings of the Ladies' Aid and Missionary 
Society as well as the Cambrian W. C. T. U. are all conducted 
in English. And the annual report of the church is published 
in the English language. The only distinctly Welsh service 
in the church are the old people's prayer service at 9 a. m. and 
the public service at 10:00 a. m. on Sundays. 

It is this recognition of the need of Englisli that has given 
the Calvinistie Methodist Church its substantial growth in the 
last decade, and especially in the last five years. The admis- 
sion of English into the church services has kept the young 
Welsh people in the Welsh church instead of their leaving it 
for English churches in the city, or from drifting to total in- 
difference regarding church life. To be sure, immigration 
from local communities has kept up during the last decade as 
before, but the corresponding exit on the part of the young of 
the church has not been as great as it was in previous years. 
Take, for example, the number of children baptized and the 
number of children received into full membership of the 
church in 25 years, and compare the relative increase of those 
received in the last five years. The total number of children 
baptized in 25 years is 163. Of this number, 22.7 percent 
were baptized in the last five years. This is about normal. i 
The total number received into full membership of the church 
in 25 years is 146. Of this number, 42.4 percent were taken 
in during the last five years. This shows a tremendous in- 
crease.2 Immigration has continued from local Welsh com- 
munities to be sure, but the real and persistent growth of the 
church has resulted from the fact that it has been able to 



1 See Figure 8. i., page 131. 

2 See Figure 8. ii., page 131. 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 



131 



Figure 8 




77.3 



4Z 4- 

51 6 



Figure 8. i, represents the total number of children bap- 
tized in 25 years previous to January 1, 1910, as per discussion 
on page 130. 

Segment a. Gives total baptized from 1885 to 1904. 

Segment b. Shows total baptized from 1905 to 1909. 

Figure 8. ii representing the total of children received 
into church in 25 years previous to January 1, 1910, as per 
discussion on page 130. 

Segment a. Shows total received from 1885 to 1904. 

Segment b. Shows total received from 1905 to 1909. 



132 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

retain its own children by adapting itself to them linguisti- 
cally. 

An oetagenarian living in Columbus, but who spent most 
of his life in Jackson county, in discussing the linguistic situ- 
ation with the writer said: "Pan ddaeth Saesneg i raewn i'r 
Settlement fe aeth erefydd i maes." (When English came 
into the Settlement religion went out of it.") Whatever may 
be said of that philosophy with respect to the Jackson and 
Gallia settlement, the recognition of the imminent need of 
English has saved the young people of the Welsh families to 
the Calvinistie Methodist Church in Columbus. Only 29, or 
less than 6 percent, of the church members in the Calvinistie 
Methodist Church are native born descendants of the old 
Welsh families of Columbus who came here previous to the 
influx from the Jackson and Gallia and other local settlements. 
The large majority of the descendants of the old Welsh fam- 
ilies are in English churches of one denomination or another, 
and some of them in no church. Scores of them were lost to 
the Welsh church, no doubt, for linguistic reasons. The new 
group of Columbus born Welsh children, children of the 
Welsh who have come into Columbus in the past quarter of a 
century, are being held to the Welsh church largely because 
the church in recent years has tried to adapt itself to their 
condition. Today 212 young people under 21 years of age, 
and many others who are over 21 years old, are in the Welsh 
church and society while only 12.7 percent of those under 21 
years can understand the Welsh language with any reasonable 
degree of intelligence. 

It is evident that a great change has come over the Welsh 
social mind in recent years. The Welsh church in Columbus 
is awakening to the new conditions, and an endeavor is being 
made to meet the need, at least in the church society, by in- 
troducing English into the church services. The Welsh group 
in Columbus has been transformed from the ancient type of 
Welsh society into a modern Welsh community. The church 
is awake to modern and present day problems. The Welsli 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 133 

of Colurabus are now studying the conditions which surround 
their people.^ 

INTERMARRIAGE AFFECTS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP 

Intermarriage between the Welsh and people of other 
nationalities reveals a change in their social thinking. While 
it reveals a change it also produces change. Only a few de- 
cades ago to marry outside of the Welsh nationality was 
looked upon with disfavor and even as a disgrace in some in- 
stances. Intermarriage with other nationalities is now a com- 
mon thing among the Welsh people, as our statistics on mar- 
riage and conjugal relation point out very clearly. Out of 
17 marriages solemnized by the writer as pastor of the Cal- 
vinistic Methodist Church, 8 were between persons, one of 
whom was a member of his church (and of pure Welsh blood) 
with persons of other nationalities. From the general canvass 
of the city we found that out of 653, 19.6 percent, were of 
parties both of whom were Welsh ; 80.4 percent, were between 
parties one of whom was Welsh and the other a person of 
some other nationality .^ Such an extensive intermarriage with 
other peoples must have a great influence in breaking down 
the boundaries of a distinctly Welsh type of society. 

The Welsh have not only intermarried with different na- 
tionalities, but also with persons of many and various religious 
persuasions and this affects the Welsh church problem. They 
are united with persons in a religious way whose persuasions 
and confessions are not even known to the Welshman in his 
own country, such as Lutherans, United Brethren, etc. Eight 
Welshmen were members of the Catholic church while 21 
others had married Catholics ; and a larger number than that 
had married Lutherans and some united with the Lutheran 
church as a result. These influences in a religious and social 
way, together with the influences of the schools upon the 
young, the influence of business intercourse and commercial 
relations existing between Welshmen and men of other nation- 



1 The proposed "Welsh Social Center" is an evidence of this. 

2 See Appendix D. ; also Figures 3 and 4, pages 84 and 86. 



134 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

alities, sufficiently account for the tremendous change on the 
part of the Welsh group in Columbus in recent years. 

CONCLUSION 

From a study of the conditions revealed in the foregoing 
chapters, the following facts may be noted: 

1. The Welsh of Columbus, by adapting themselves to 
surrounding conditions, are rapidly becoming assimilated into 
the American population of the city, and consequently their 
Welsh characteristics and institutions are vanishing. 

2. The Welsh language is rapidly passing out of use both 
in the home and in the church. The rising generation cannot 
speak it. 

3. Intermarriage between Welsh persons and persons of 
other nationalities is very general and widespread, and this 
modifies conditions in Welsh society. 

4. Intermarriage between members of the Welsh church 
and people of other religious persuasions in other nationalities 
affects the Welsh church and society. 

5. Welsh parents insist on their children being faith- 
ful to the Welsh church. At the same time they insist on 
having the Sunday morning service in the Welsh language 
M^hich the growing generation does not understand. Many 
churches of the Calvinistic Methodist denomination have but 
one English preaching service in the month and some have no 
English preaching. 

6. The Welsh church must apply itself more vigorously 
to adapting itself to the rapidly changing linguistic condi- 
tions. It is now time that English were introduced into the 
morning service on Sunday. With about one-half of the 
society unable to speak Welsh and the entire membership able 
to understand English preaching, it is to be hoped that the 
rising generation may soon be favored with some English 
preaching on Simday morning in Columbus. 

7. If the leaders in the Calvinistic Methodist Church in 
the United States continue to insist on preserving the Welsh 



THE PROCESS OF CHANGE 135 

language in the church services, as they have in the past they 
will find the church, in the not distant future, a church with- 
out an efficient ministry such as it now enjoys. Candidates 
for the christian ministry in the Welsh church today have 
their ears to the groimd, and they read the signs of the times, 
and they will likely enter the ministry where linguistic limi- 
tations will not be a handicap to their usefulness. 

8. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist denomination, if it 
is determined to exist as a separate body for some time to 
come, should study its parish or community socially, and 
through its knowledge of social conditions serve the people — 
their social and spiritual need — through the medium of 
a language which all the people understand. The motto of the 
Welsh church in the community, socially speaking, should be 
— Adaptation. 

9. The ultimate fate of the Calvinistic Methodist (or 
Welsh Presbyterian) denomination in this coimtry will be 
complete assimilation into the Presbyterian Church in the 
United States. This will take place in one or the other of 
two ways, viz. by Union or by Absorption; and the longer 
Union is postponed, the more rapidly will Absorption take 
place. With the present condition of widespread intercourse, 
both social and commercial, and while sharing the language 
and life common to Americans and mingling freely with all 
other peoples, the Welsh cannot continue in a church based on 
and limited to a single race. 

The fond dream of the Welshman of the past has been for 
a community in America strictly Welsh, uncontaminated by 
extraneous influences, and in which the Welsh language might 
ever flourish. But this is not to be. The process of Ameri- 
canization will prevail over the efforts of any foreign group 
to the contrary. And under the influence of American insti- 
tutions an American type of man will ultimately be evolved. 
Local groups or communities may try to stay this process, if 
they will, by clinging to some cardinal custom of their re- 
spective father-lands or mother-tongues, but ultimately all 



136 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

must be melted into a uniform American people. Marks of 
other races will vanish in our country and an American type 
will be the result. Every people who come to our shores will 
contribute some element which will affect the character of the 
ultimate American, but in making its contributions every 
foreign comnuinity will spend itself. 

The Welsh in America have come to stay. Their descend- 
ants, as they go down through the generations, are destined to 
lose their identity through amalgamation and assimilation. 
But while they thus lose their life, they also find it; for in 
losing their identity they make their permanent contribution 
to the American race. Nothing of intrinsic value will be lost. 
but will exist as a lasting element in American civilization. 
Welsh communities in America, then, should apply them- 
selves to rearing citizens imbued with the highest American 
ideals of education, religion and citizenship. This does not 
mean that they should think less of the Land of their Fathers, 
but that they should think more of their adopted land and 
the home their children, and thus do their part in contribut- 
ing to the development of the highest possible type of Ameri- 
can citizen. 



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■ooooooocaoooccocoooDooooooaooooiOi c; Oi C-. o; CiCiOiCi 



138 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

APPENDIX B. 

TABLE V. 

AGE GROUPS ACCORDING TO SEX IN THE 

CALVINISTIC METHODIST CHURCH AND SOCIETY 

Age Males Females Totals 

Infants under 5 yrs. 27 24 51 

Childhood 6 to 10 yrs. 22 28 

11 to 15 yrs. 31-53 21-49 102 

Youth 16 to 20 yrs. 27 32 59 

Maturity 21 to 30 yrs. 57 59 

31 to 40 yrs. 50 64 

41 to 50 yrs. 39 48 

51 to 60 yrs. 27-172 41-212 384 

Old Age 61 to 70 yrs. 17 31 

71 to 80 yrs. 9 10 

81 yrs. and over 4-30 5-46 76 

TOTALS 309 363 672 

APPENDIX C. 

TABLE VI. 

FOREIGN AND NATIVE BORN 

So *".S .Sf * 

'S . "5 ti '® •- 

^ -Si -I ^S -Si 



22 il §1 Sg 

OC8 o" 28 Oe 



Xi p. 



Calvinistie Methodist Church and 

society 127 192 67 14 272 

Regularly Classified in city at large. 269 415 152 26 411 

Totals 396 607 219 40 683 

Total foreign born 396 

Total native born 1,549 



APPENDIX 139 

APPENDIX D. 

TABLES VIII., IX. and X. 

MARRIAGE AND INTERMARRIAGE AND THE 

NATIONNALITIES WITH WHOM THE 

WELSH HAVE INTERMARRIED 

TABLE VIII. 






S E£ g'l go gg 



fe -g; Iz; !5 Z D H 

The total number of marriages 108 185 70 4 212 74 653 

Welsh males who married Welsh fe- 
males 42 20 1 13 52 128 

The total number of mixed marriages. 66 165 69 4 199 22 525 

Welsh males with females of other 

nationalities 52 122 49 4 160 12 399 

Welsh females with males of other 

nationalities 14 43 20 39 10 126 

TABLE IX. 

MALES WHO INTERMARRIED 

The total number of mixed marriages. 52 122 49 4 160 12 399 

Welsh males who married Americans.. 31 90 35 3 126 4 289 

Welsh males who married Germans... 14 24 10 1 23 5 77 

Welsh males who married Irish 5 5 2 8 3 23 

Welsh males who married Scotch 2 3 2 2 9 

Welsh males who married Norwegians 10 1 

TABLE X. 
FEMALES WHO INTERMARRIED 

Total number of mixed marriages 14 43 20 39 10 126 

Welsh females who married Americans 11 29 16 32 4 82 

Welsh females who married Germans. . 2 6 4 12 4 28 

Welsh females who married Irish 1 3 4 1 9 

Welsh females who married Scotch... 5 1 6 

Welsh females who married Swedes . . 10 1 



140 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

APPENDIX E. 

TABLES XIII, XIV, XV.i 

CHURCH MEMBERS, ATTENDANTS, AND 
NON-CHURCH-GOERS 

Classified according to their Foreign and Native born groups. 

TABLE XIII. a. 

CHURCH MEMBERS 



sl S^ gg 
I' ^S II 



p:^ >5 ^ !?: Iz; H 

Total number of church members 95 165 61 8 150 479 

Total number of males 46 75 26 6 82 232 

Total number of females 49 90 35 2 68 244 

Total number of males who are single. . 4 27 10 3 23 67 
Total number of females who are single 13 45 24 2 42 126 
Total number of Welsh males who mar- 
ried Welsh females 21 8 1 6 36 

Total number of Welsh females who 

married Welsh males 28 14 1 8 51 

Total number of Welsh males who mar- 
ried females of other nationalities. . 21 40 15 3 53 132 
Total number of Welsh females who 

married males of other nationalities 8 31 10 18 67 

b. (incomplete) 

Total number of church members 53 27 10 3 34 127 

Total number of males 25 8 3 1 7 44 

Total number of females 28 19 7 22 27 83 

1 Tables XIII., XIV. and XV. are in two parts, "a" and "b". The 
returns were not all as complete as we could wish for on this subject, and for 
that reason part "b" in each table is given separate so as to permit us to give 

"a" as complete and with as much detail as possible for returns which were 
complete. 



APPENDIX 141 



TABLE XIV. a. 

CHURCH ATTENDANTS 

Who are not Members. 



^ p. .a >= .Q p. 



fe S5 !?; ;?; 2; E-i 

Total not members who attend 49 97 35 4 97 282 

Total number of males 31 67 24 3 59 184 

Total number of females 18 30 11 1 38 98 

Total of the males, single 6 19 6 3 17 51 

Total of the females, single 1 15 5 15 36 

Total number of Welsh males who mar- 
ried Welsh females 14 6 5 25 

Total number of Welsh females who 

married Welsh males 8 4 3 15 

Welsh males who married females of 

other nationalities 10 34 16 1 33 94 

Welsh females who married males of 

other nationalities 3 4 5 13 25 

b. (incomplete) 

Total not members who attend 16 15 3 12 46 

Total number of males 10 8 2 5 25 

Total number of females 6 7 10 7 21 



143 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 



TABLE XV. a. 
NON-CHURCH-GOERS 








BO 

o a 


11 


It 




0/ 












5 * 


.t s 






















« 




» 


S5 


)^ 


12; 


H 


100 


42 


11 


113 


315 


87 


33 




97 


263 


13 


9 




16 


52 


33 


15 




43 


110 


4 


5 




7 


21 


6 








2 


15 


2 








2 


10 



Total non-church-goers 49 

Total number of males 39 

Total number of females 10 

Total number of males, single 12 

Total number of females, single 1 

Welsh males who married Welsh females 7 

Welsh females who married Welsh males 6 
Welsh males who married females of 

other nationalities 20 48 18 52 138 

Welsh females who married males of 

other nationalities 3 7 4 7 21 

b. (incomplete) 

Total non-church-goers 7 11 

Total number of these males 7 8 

Total number of these females 3 



1 





5 


24 








2 


17 


1 





3 


7 



APPENDIX 143 



APPENDIX F. 
WELSH PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN AMERICA 

1. "Cymro America," a bi-weekly established 1832; 

existed ouly a few months. 

2. "Y Cyfaill," a denominational monthly of the Calvin- 

istic Methodist denomination established 1838. and 
is extant. 

3. **Y Cenhadwr," a denominational monthly of the Con- 

gregational church, established 1840 and became ex- 
tinct abont 1900. 

4. "Y Dyngarwr," established 1842. and was united with 

"Y Cenhadwr" in 1844. 

5. "Y Reread." a denominational bi-weekly of the Baptist 

denomination, established in 1842. and was published 
for about a year. 

6. "Y Seren Gorllewinol." established in 1842 as an organ 

of the Baptist denomination, but has been discon- 
tinued for a great many years. 

7. "Y Detholydd." a Congregational denominational organ 

established 1850, and was soon discontinued. 

8. ''Haul Gomer," established in 1884. and was discon- 

tinued after nine months. 

9. "Y Drych." a national weekly established 1851 and is 

still extant. 

10. "Cymro Americanaidd," a weekly established 1853; ab- 

sorbed by the Drych a little later. 

11. "Y Gwyliedydd Americanaidd," established 1854; ab- 

sorbed by the Drych in 1855. 

12. ''Y Cylchgrawn Cenedlaethol, " established 1853, and 

published quarterly imtil 1856. 

13. "Y Traethodydd. " established 1857, and published quar- 

terly until 1861 or 1862. 



144 THE WELSH OF COLUMBUS, OHIO 

14. ''Y Golygydd," established 1856, only four numbers 

were issued. 

15. "Yr Arweinydd," established 1858 and continuing for 

three or four years. 

16. ''Y Bardd," established 3858; only five numbers of the 

"Bardd" were issued. 

17. '"'Y Wasg," established 1871, absorbed by "Y Drych" 

in 1890. 

18. "Baner America." established 1868, absorbed by the 

"Drych" in 1877. 

19. "Y Columbia," established 1888, absorbed by the Dryeh 

in 1894. The "Columbia" Avas bi-lingual. 

20. "Y Lamp," established in the early '90s as a Christian 

Endeavor organ of the Calvinistic Methodist Synod 
of Wisconsin; discontinued about six or eight years 
ago. 

21. "Y Trysor," successor to "Y Lamp," issued two or three 

yeai"s. 

22. "Seren Oneida" ) ^. ^, ,.^. , 

00 c^ri £ -11 TT J ujj ( These three were political organs 

23. ' Cyfadl yr Undeb" V , ,. , , ^ , , ,- 
,,^ , ,, ( and lived but a short time. 

24. Yr Amserau" ; 

Of the above papers and periodicals established and print- 
ed for the Welsh in America, only two survive today, viz. the 
"Drych," a national weekly; and "Y Cyfaill," a monthly, 
which is the official organ of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, 
in the United States. 

There are, however, two periodicals designed for the Welsh 
in America printed in the English language: "The Cam- 
brian," a bi-weekly magazine, and "The Druid," a weekly 
paper. 



ERROR 

Reference to "Table VI., Page 94" on page 77, should 
read "Table VI., Appendix C." 



AUG 18 1918 



